Crafting with Sue

All Done!

2012-02-13T05:00:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone. Hope y'all had a great weekend! Can you believe the headlines from Saturday about Whitney Houston?! Unbelievable isn't it? How sad. Later today, a group of us will be getting together to celebrate the birthday of a special friend. She is the person I did this painting for and I can't wait to give it to her!

I finished it late Friday night and am still amazed at how I was able to bring this digi file from the Heritage Collection, over at Stamp N Plus Scrap N, to life. I painted her to look like my friend, especially in the eyes. That smug, serious and slightly arrogant stare is a trademark of the birthday girl. LOL! Well that's all I have for today! Tomorrow I will share a scrapbook page I did about this painting. Have a great day everyone! Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

With Paint Brush In Hand...

2012-02-03T02:29:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! The past couple of weeks have been very frustrating. As I mentioned before, I am having some serious computer issues! I'm just about ready to put my fist through the monitor, bang the CPU on the walls and floor a couple of times and then toss it out the window! It's gonna take me a while to get all my important files off my desktop and onto an external hard drive. But until that is done I have to put up with a seriously messed up computer. For over a week now, I could not access Blogger. I could not even comment on other blogs. Grrrrr! Since I am too wound up to sleep tonight, well it's actually 1:45 AM, I decided to tinker with the computer a bit. My blogger issues seem to stem from "Google" getting hijacked and re-directed to other sites. I found some instructions online on how to remove the virus that was causing that problem and by golly it worked! So here I am posting again, hehe! In a couple of hours, once I've had some sleep, I will do a little blog hopping and leave comments for some of the beautiful creations I have seen. So guess what I have been up to, besides dealing with computer woes? LOL!

I've started painting again! Told ya my hands were itching to hold a paint brush again? LOL! Does the image I am painting look familiar? Can you believe that image actually started as a digi stamp?! Maybe this card will jog your memory.

I gave this card to a friend and she fell in love with the image. She wanted to know if it came in larger prints as she wanted to hang it on her wall. Told her it was a digi file ( She had no idea what I meant by that, hehe.) and that I colored it myself, so there were no larger prints out there. She seemed a bit disappointed. That was over a year ago I believe. Anyways, her birthday is in two weeks and I thought it would be great if I could somehow give her a painting of the image she fell in love with.

So I drew the image on a large canvas and am currently in the process of painting it. I probably would have finished it tonight if the birds were not constantly screaming and distracting me. The picture below shows where I am, as of this post. I do have a question though. I am not good at choosing colors, so I am looking for color idea suggestions for the white space behind the image. For some reason I am seeing blue in my mind but am not sure that will work, so help! LOL! Thanks in advance.

Well that's it for today. Gonna go catch some Z's now. Have a wonderful Friday and weekend. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Here's The Scoop...

2012-01-17T04:30:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone. Welcome back! Today I am sharing another scrapbook page. I did this one over the weekend. It was my first time doing a recipe spread. Someone who loves to cook and get crafty in the kitchen can do an entire book like this. How neat would that be?! It will be like having your very own cookbook, hehe. This recipe was given to me a few years ago by a co-worker, who happens to be a health nut. I came across it recently and decided to try it. I could not believe how easy it was to make. I might also add that it is delicious and filling!

So you can guess what I will be snacking on this week! LOL! Here is a closeup of side one...

And here is one of side two...

That's it for today. Gotta run. Have a great day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Lost & Found...

2012-01-16T04:30:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! Hope you had a great second week and an even better weekend! Mine was fine. No major problems to report. Today I am sharing with you two scrapbook spreads I made this weekend. They are both about how we spent New Year's eve, 2011. The spread directly below is about us getting lost on our way to our friend's house. I told you about this in an earlier post and even shared some pictures. But today you get to see how I put those pictures together to document the story for my scrapbook. This is one of the major reasons I love taking pictures, even of places and things that other people may find insignificant. I love how pictures allow me to go back in time and relive moments that have since gone by. When I look at a photograph, I am able to see, smell and feel the same sights, fragrances and emotions I experienced when the event was actually taking place.

The spread below documents how we spent the night. It was so much fun. Normally we would head to bed right after midnight but on this particular night we did not go to sleep until 5:30 the following morning. I have a lot more pictures so I may end up doing a third and fourth spread.

I haven't shown any cards in a while because my craft room is currently going through a major re-organization and my supplies are not easily accessible right now. I will get back to card making soon, so no worries. I am also itching to start painting again so you can expect to see a few of those as well. Well that is all I have for today. It's Martin Luther King Day so hopefully you have the day off. Have a great one. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting.

One Week Down!

2012-01-09T12:48:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! So we are in week # 2 of 2012! How was the first week for you? Mine SUCKED!!! OMG what a nightmare! By Saturday night, I was begging to go back to New Year's eve and start all over. But unfortunately, in life, we don't get do-overs. *sigh* So what was so bad about it you may ask? Well, after already having a rather sucky week, and I might also add ~ gaining a few pounds, I started the weekend with my computer being hijacked by a nasty virus! This one was by far the worse I've ever experienced. It disabled some of my settings, deleted my quick launch items and shortcuts, completely deleted some of my installed software, screwed up my desktop and gave me a huge headache.

The sad part is that I only visit craft sites. Who would think you would pick up a nasty virus like this at a craft site! I've noticed too that these viruses are becoming increasingly more difficult to get rid of. This one did not even allow me to re-start the computer in "safe" mode. Fortunately, I am married to a techie, so he was able to get me back up and running some hours later. I know I will have to format the hard drive and start over from scratch soon, but at least he has bought me some time. I hate starting over and having to re-install everything, remember passwords and my list of favorites etc.! Since this attack, I have been doing all my surfing in the "Sand box". I'm not taking any chances.

So while my computer was going through the virus scan, which we knew would take hours, I accompanied hubby to his tuxedo fitting and then we headed to Bahama Breeze. There I tried one of their new drinks. It was called, get this, "The Pain Killer". I figured it would help me get over the stress of what was going on with my computer. Well, a few minutes later my tongue felt heavy, my speech became slurred and I felt like crap. Hubby thought it was funny but I didn't! I like having control of my faculties at all times, hehe. I usually don't drink because the taste of alcohol puts me straight to sleep, but I managed to stay awake until we got home. Then I immediately crashed, waking up several hours later. A completely wasted Saturday! *sigh*

One thing I have learned in the last two years is that we attract and multiply, in our lives, the things we focus on. So on Sunday morning, I got up ready to put the ills of the past week behind me and move on. The pity party was over. So off to the gym I went to beat up the treadmill! LOL! I am only human, so I am going to react negatively when bad things happen in my life. For me, this unfortunately still means overeating, especially foods with high sugar content, as well as becoming bummed out, depressed and filled with self pity. However, as part of my weight control regimen, I have adopted something I like to call "The Three Day Rule". That is, I give myself three days to gripe, complain, eat badly, become engulfed with self pity and get it out of my system. Then by day four, I snap out of it, pick up the pieces and move on. For me it works.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. LOL! I am now going to share three of the most recent scrapbook pages I've completed. Remember that post I did, where I mentioned that hubby had gone to a football game with a co-worker? Below is the spread I did with the pictures he took at that game.

Earlier in this post, I mentioned hubby going for a tuxedo fitting. Well that's because he will be one of the groomsmen at the upcoming wedding of the couple you see, on the right page, in the spread below. There is also a small picture of them on the left. These pictures were taken during one of out "date" nights. This reminds me that I need to make them a wedding card!

The page below is one of the few "one picture" pages I have done. That picture was taken on Christmas day.

And with that, I am finished blogging for today, hehe. As always, thank you so much for visiting. Here is to a better week for all of us! Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Happy New Year Everyone!

2012-01-04T06:40:00.004-05:00

I know I am 4 days late with this, hehe. Guess I am still recovering from New Year's Eve. LOL! Hope the year started on a good note for everyone. Did y'all do anything exciting on New Year's eve? 2011 was the first year, since being married, that we rang in the New Year away from home. Hubby and I had quite an adventure as we made our way to Talking Rock, Georgia on New Year's eve. Neither of us had even heard of Talking Rock before that day, but we figured the GPS would take us there with no problems. Well it did, kinda, hehe! As we got close, we started driving on this gravel road for miles. Hmmmn, I told hubby that this did not seem right. I then told him if he wanted to get rid of me, there was no need to bring me all the way out here to kill me and dispose of my body.

We continued following the GPS which led us to the structure below when it announced "Arriving at destination". Another hmmmmn, then we both looked at each other. Now I started conjuring up mental images of me running for my life down this gravel, mountain road. I told ya I had an active imagination! LOL!

We kept on driving further up this mountain road, figuring the GPS was just a little off and that we would see a real house soon. When were got to the location below we concluded that we were officially lost and called for help.

We were told to go back down the mountain and head to the train station and that someone would come to get us.

By this time it was getting dark. About 15 minutes later, a car heading towards us, flashed it's lights and turned around. We followed the car, figuring it was his friend Jason but we did not know for sure as neither of us saw who was driving the car. To our surprise, the car headed back up that gravel mountain road, passing exactly where had passed before. Now images from the movies, 'Joy Ride', 'Hitcher' and 'Wrong Turn' started coming to mind.

We went about 200 yards further from the location where we had stopped at initially and there it was, a real house! The rest was history. We talked, cooked, ate, danced and rang in 2012 with good friends and did not head to bed until 5:30 AM on New Year's day!

Ironically, my "One Little Word" for 2012 was initially going to be "Adventure"! And that was exactly how 2011 ended and 2012 started! LOL! Anyway, more on that in another post. Gotta go get dressed for work now. Have a great day and a super fantastic year everyone! Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Two More Days!

2011-12-23T00:12:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Just two more days now till the big day ...'sigh'. Today I am sharing that last Christmas card I made this year. Because time was limited, this one is also very simple. The sentiment at the bottom is from Hero Arts. The wreath is a die cut that was made with the "Grapevine Wreath" from Memory Box. The ornament was also made with a die from Memory Box and called "Snowflake ornament". The bow was made with the "Bow and Bell " die from Cherry Lynn Designs. I added some bling and used a hole puncher and red card stock to add some berries. Finally I used a grey Copic marker to add some shadows to the bow and wreath. That was it!

Remember that Christmas picture I did with hubby? Well it turns out I was short a couple Christmas cards this year and since I did not have time to make any more, I figured I would quickly turn those into cards.. I had them printed at Ritz Camera. Did everything online and picked them up at the store an hour later . I love how they turned out! Sorry for the blurred pic.

Well I have to run now. Have a safe and Happy Holiday everyone! Thanks for visiting and until next time Merry Christmas!

All I Want For Christmas...

2011-12-20T05:00:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going well. I am still crazy busy here trying to get stuff done before the end of the year. I have accomplished so much but there is still a lot to do. I try to squeeze in what I can on weekends as it's difficult to do much during the week. I get home from work so exhausted that I use whatever energy I have left to cook, clean cages and prepare for the next day. Thankfully all my Christmas cards are now mailed out! Whew! Don't think I have ever mailed them this late before. Speaking of Christmas, today I am sharing with you a Christmas scrapbook layout I completed last night.

Last week at the office I decided to do a Christmas photo shoot. I just love my co-workers. They are like my family away from home. So just as I like preserving the holiday memories of my actual family, I also wanted to create some special holiday memories with my work family as well. I asked everyone to wear Santa hats and Christmas colors and I took pictures of us to scrapbook and hang in the office. It was so much fun, especially taking the group shots. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. LOL! Here is a larger view of side one...

And here is one of side two...

That's pretty much it for toady. Thank you so much for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Christmas Frenzy Card #2

2011-12-14T05:16:00.004-05:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I'm back with another card from my marathon Christmas card making session this past weekend. This one is also pretty quick and easy to make. I started with a white card stock base and created the embossed look at the top and bottom using another one of my new toys.

I used the "Frostyville Border" die from Memory Box. I love these new dies from Memory Box as they create such intricate designs. The silver ornaments were also created with a die from Memory Box, called "Snowflake Ornament". The green leaves were made with the "Stacker Flowers" die from Cherry Lyn Designs. Bling was added to the center of the leaves and a sentiment from Stampabilities was added to the side to complete the card. That's all there was to this one. I gotta run now. Thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-12-12T05:15:00.004-05:00

Christmas! Most of the neighbors have their trees and Christmas lights up and everything looks so pretty. We are going to decorate the office tomorrow and I am looking forward to it as I will not be doing any decorating at home. Don't want the added work come January, ya know what I mean? "What goes up must come down." LOL! This weekend it dawned on me that Christmas is only two weeks away and I didn't even mail out my Christmas cards yet! So I had to get busy! LOL! This is one of the cards I made in my mad, last minute Christmas cardmaking frenzy.

It's really simple. I embossed the front of the card base with the "Drink Me" embossing folder from Couture Creations.The sentiment at the bottom is from Stampabilities and the circular image at the center is from Studio G. This was then framed with red card stock the was cut and embossed with the "Scalloped Octagons" Nestability die from Spellbinders.

Behind the red card stock is a blue flourish design I made using one of my new toys, the "Amira Flourish" die from Memory box. Some red bling was then added to the top and bottom of the flourish to complete the card. Pretty simple huh?

So ya wanna know what else I was up to this weekend, hehe? Welllll, I got hubby to pose with me for an "official" Christmas picture. It's a new tradition I am starting as of this year. LOL! I figure it will be fun to look back at these in coming years and see how much we change (hopefully not too much) and also see how creative we could be with these pictures. We took several shots. OMG, you should see the outtakes, hilarious! Hubby then dashed off to a ball game and I sat in front of the computer and added some digital scrapbooking elements to create the final product you see below.

We had the camera set up on a tripod with the self timer on. But if you plan to do this yourself, I strongly suggest you get someone to take the picture for you. They will be able to tell you when the candy canes are lined up perfectly etc. You will save yourself a lot of stress from taking dumb pictures like the one below. I can laugh at this now but was pretty ticked off that day. We had trouble lining up a lot of things. LOL!

Hubby is beginning to enjoy taking pictures himself. I got him a camera for his birthday and he had a blast with it in Italy and also took it to the football game this past weekend. For someone with no knowledge of photography, he takes some beautiful pictures. I am so proud of him!

Well that's all I have for today. Have a great day, be careful out there and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Ornamental...

2011-12-09T03:30:00.007-05:00

Happy Friday Folks! Hope you all have some exciting plans for the weekend. As for me, I will be raking the mountain of leaves in my yard. I love Fall but sure do hate the beautiful mess it leaves behind! LOL!

Today I am sharing another Christmas card. This one was made with a red card stock base that was embossed with the Cuttlebug "Jamara" folder. I added some Christmas ornaments that were made with the Stampin up "Delightful Decorations" stamp set and ornament punch. Bling was used for the string on the ornaments and some gold ribbon was added to the top of the ornaments.

A die from the Spellbinder's "Fancy Tags Two" set was used to create the label at the bottom and the sentiment was stamped at the center. I then took my gold Spica pen and colored in part of the grooves on the label. That's pretty much it! Well I gotta run. Have a fabulous weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Got Balls???

2011-12-07T03:30:00.044-05:00

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing two scrapbook pages. This first one is of us playing tennis back in July. Gee I can still remember how hot and humid it was that day!

The one below is a spread I did with some pictures of Abigail and I. See what a camera ham she is!

She has been having some issues lately and I hope she resolves them soon or else she will be sleeping outside by herself! The past couple of nights, or more accurately in the wee hours of the morning, she went down to the bottom of her cage to play, talk and laugh for hours. It's really kind of funny and entertaining, but not when we are trying to sleep. LOL!

Oh well, I better get going. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Just Chillin...

2011-12-05T05:30:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone. I'm back today with another simple Christmas card. I started this one by placing a snowflake border at the center of some white card stock. This border is a rub-on from Heidi Swapp called "Winter Weather". It was part of my regular scrapbooking supplies but since I have gone digital, I can now use those on my cards.

I stamped an image from Inkadinkado at the center and placed a sentiment from Stampabilities at the bottom. I then embossed the front of the card with the Cuttlebug 5x7 "Polka Dots" folder. Again, I was being lazy here, as I really wanted to use a snowflake embossing folder but did not feel like searching from it. A blue strip of card stock was used for the border on the right and I finished the card by adding lots of bling. That's it for today. Have a wonderful week and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Brrrrr, It's Cold Outside!

2011-12-01T05:30:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Can you believe we are already in December? It just blows my mind how fast the time is going by! Well it looks like the cold weather has found us again this year. It's cold and raining. The weatherman keeps mentioning the "S" word but thankfully the white stuff has not made an appearance yet. LOL! Today I have a simple card to share with you. I actually made a couple of cards during the past few days but can't seem to get on here long enough to blog about them. Free time seems to be scarce at this time of year. I managed to get home early today so I decided to steal a few moments to do some blogging.

As I mentioned before this is a very simple card. The image is a die cut I made using the "Bow&Bell" die from Cheery Lynn Designs. I love these dies. Their designs are so intricate. I added some bling to the bell and the sentiment below is from Stampabilities. I should have chosen a bolder sentiment, one that would stand out more, but was too lazy to go find one.

As a final touch I added some embossing to the top and bottom center of the card. I had never done this before and thought it would make a nice design. For this I needed a small embossing folder as I wanted to restrict the embossing to only the center. I really wanted to use a snowflake pattern but did not have any in this size so I opted for the Cuttlebug 3x3 "Winter Snowman" folder instead. Hope you like it. That's all I have for today. Have a great one. Be safe and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Cyber Monday...

2011-11-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Did any of you do any Black Friday shopping? I actually did a little shopping on Saturday. Don't remember purchasing anything on sale though. I did get some great online deals on Digital Scrapbookiing supplies yesterday and this morning. And yesterday I purchased some dies online that I cannot wait to play with! Hope they get here soon. LOL! Can you believe I actually sat down and made a card last night! Yeah, I know shocking, isn't it?! LOL! It was a little intimidating at first. The initial card I had in mind completely sucked, once materialized, leading me to think I had completely lost my card making mojo. But I did not despair. I just set it aside and moved in another direction and that led me to the card below....

This was pretty easy to make. The huge image in the middle was made with one of the larger 'Cover-a-Card' rubber stamps from Impression Obsession. This one is called "Tree Line". The sentiment at the top is from the Stampin up set "Peaceful Season" and the one at the bottom is from the Stampin up set "A Beautiful Season".

I needed some more red to make both sentiments stand out so I added a red border to each side of the card. These were both made with the "Anastasia Border" die from Cheery Lynn Designs. The one on the right is the actual die pattern and the one on the left is the left over negative piece that would normally be thrown away. Hope you like it! That's all I have for today. Gotta run now. Have a fabulous week. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Memories From Italy...

2011-11-18T11:50:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! So how was your week? Mine was a bit crappy, especially on Wednesday. So many things went wrong that morning. Got out of bed at 4:15AM to go to the gym. I got dressed in a brand new pair of tights I purchased just a few days before only to notice a big hole on the side. Once I got there, within the first two minutes of walking on the treadmill, my feet started hurting. I looked down only to realize I was wearing the wrong shoes! So back home I went to change. Put my gym shoes on and headed back out. By this time it was raining heavily. Got on the treadmill again and nearly fell off because my shoes were still wet from walking in the rain. So I dried them off and got back on only to have the battery in my MP3 player die shortly thereafter! OMG, what a torture it was to be on there with no music to take me away mentally! I normally do 5 miles, but gave up once I got to mile three. I just couldn't take it anymore and with all the delays, I was now running late. So back home I went only to be locked out of the house as the garage door refused to open. Have you ever had one of those days? Later that day we had the tornado threats but luckily no damage. As I waited and watched the news I decided to relax by putting together a few scrapbook pages. So here they are. These are the first three pages I did of hubby's recent trip to Italy. Enjoy!

Have a great weekend! As always thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

I Snapped!

2011-11-14T03:22:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! How are you all doing! I am still crazy busy, especially at work, but it's all good! I have decided that this is my favorite time of the year. It is so beautiful here right now. The trees are changing colors and the landscape is simply magnificent. Today I wanted to check in and share some interesting things that have been going on. I had two new experiences last week and couldn't wait to tell you about them. I will start with the first one. It is summed up in the scrapbook page below, which by the way, took me all of 30 minutes to complete! LOL! I love it when everything comes together quickly.

My co-worker, pictured in the layout above, is simply amazing when it comes to living things. She plays with all animals, insects and even bugs. Unlike me, she is not afraid of any of them. She will even hold a rat! Can you believe that?! Whenever one of us goes to kill a roach or other insect, she will intervene, then pick the critter up in her hand, talk and play with it, then take it outside and set it free.

So last Tuesday we were in a meeting when another co-worker came running into the room. She said there was a lizard in her office. We went over to check it out. When we got there it was at the top of the curtain. At that moment, I was thinking it would probably be a good idea to grab my camera! LOL! The rest is history. I just could not believe what happened. Of course the poor lizard was terrified, but after she grabbed him, he calmed down. It's weird, but I think he started to fall in love with her! To my amazement, when she opened her hand, he did not run away. He just stayed there and did not want to leave. We took him outside, errh, she took him outside and I followed with the camera, hehe. We were there for about 15-20 minutes, all the time she had her hand open and he would not go. She had to force him off her hand! I had never witnessed anything like that before and was simply in awe. And to think, I wanted to leave my camera at home that day!

OK, now onto the second new experience. Many of you may know that I am terrified of cats. I always say that if someone wants to kill me all they have to do is lock me in a room with a cat! LOL! That will do it! Well last week I actually held a cat for the first time in my life! My family still can't believe it, even though they have seen the pictures.

Hmmn, I guess my co-worker is rubbing off on me. Just don't expect me to go chasing lizards, playing with roaches or holding rats anytime soon, hehe!

OMG, she was the cutest little thing!! I was completely smitten. If I did not have birds I would have brought her home. So I have to say last week was indeed an eye opener for me. I learned that some of the fear I have towards certain creatures is completely irrational and prevents me from enjoying what they may have to offer. Overcoming that fear is strangely liberating and feels really good! Well that's all I have for today. Have a fantastic week everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting.

A Blogging Break...

2011-10-22T10:36:00.000-04:00

Hi guys, hope all is well and that your weekend is off to a terrific start! Sorry for my disappearing act lately. I am doing some Fall cleaning. I have been so frustrated with all the clutter around the house that I decided that the time has come to get rid of it once and for all! In 2010, I decided that I was not going into 2011 with a lot of excess weight. Well in 2011, I've decided that I am not going into 2012 with a lot of excess CRAP, uhhh I mean clutter. LOL!

Hubby has been in Italy for a while now, so I decided that this is the perfect time to focus on the house. Besides the cleaning is keeping me distracted from how much I miss him. We have never been apart this long! He is relaxing and enjoying himself though and that makes me happy. He sent some pictures and told me he has hundreds more to show me. Here are two of the ones he sent.

Italy is such a gorgeous place! When he gets back I am going to have a LOT of scrapbooking to do! LOL! I have actually continued to scrapbook, mainly because it relaxes me, keeps me grounded, focused and does not add to the clutter in the house. So that it does not distract me from my mission, I do it late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. Here are some of my recent additions.

I haven't been to the gym since he has been gone but have still managed to lose a few pounds. I guess it's because I have been getting quite a workout in the house, hehe. Later today I hope to go drop off a bunch of stuff at the donation center. I have also gathered piles of stuff to sell on ebay. These are mainly craft items that I have no intention of using. I have hundreds of sticker sheets, over a dozen brand new traditional scrapbook albums of varying sizes and a bunch of other craft stuff that are just sitting around taking up valuable space. Not to mention clothes! I am still finding large size clothes. Someone from a battered women's shelter is coming by next week to get them.

I am beginning to realize that depression turns you into a hoarder. At least that is what it did to me. I guess when you are unhappy with life and the people in it, you turn to things and food for comfort. I have been referring to my former self in the third person a lot this past week! I look at all the crap I have accumulated over these past few years and ask myself... What did she do? What was she thinking? She must have lost her mind! I feel like a "stranger" to her. It's like I went away six years ago and have recently returned to chaos. I have come back to clean up her mess and take back control. Am I making any sense here?

Anyway, there is still a lot of work to be done so let me go get busy. I can finally see the light at the end of this dark tunnel and as soon as I make my way out, I will be back to blogging on the regular. It should not be too much longer. See you all soon! Elaine, I hope you are feeling better! Have a great weekend everyone. Thank you for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

It's October!

2011-10-03T03:30:00.002-04:00

Can you believe in a little less than three months we will be getting ready to ring in a new year? 2011 sure is going by fast! Today I am sharing my first Christmas card for 2011. I haven't been feeling very creative lately so bear with me as I try to locate my lost mojo.

This is a simple tall card to fit a #10 envelope. I divided the front into three sections. The top was embossed with the Sizzix "Snowflake" embossing folder. Some patterned paper was added to the middle and the sentiment was stamped directly on it.

The sentiment is from the retired Stampin up set "Peaceful Season". At the bottom I stamped the main image, which is a cling rubber stamp from Stampendous called "Cottage Forest Scene". This was colored with Copic Markers. Chalk was used for the sky and Snowtex and glitter glue were added to the ground. I also added glitter glue to some of the branches. That's it for today. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Our Saturday Adventure

2011-09-28T07:45:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Me here again with some more scrapbook pages. I do not have any cards to share this week so I figured I would post some spreads. This past Saturday we got together with some friends and did a little exploring. This time we went to midtown. We met at the High Museum of Art and spent some time there looking at the exhibits. Unfortunately, the museum prohibits you from posting any pictures taken inside on the web so I cannot share any of the 200 or so pictures I took inside. Darn!!! Here are some I took outside while we were waiting for the museum to open.

After the museum, we went looking for a place to eat. We ended up at South City Kitchen and below is a spread of our time there.

After lunch, we visited the Center for Puppetry Arts. What a strange but interesting place this is. Below is a spread of that visit. Ironically we visited on what would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday had he been alive. He was the creator of the Muppets.

Well that's all I have for today. I was going to lay off the scrapbook pages for awhile but I couldn't have that goofy picture of me in that scrapbook spread (the one with the tongue sticking out) sitting at the top of my blog longer that a day. LOL! Have a great day everyone. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

How I start my day...

2011-09-27T03:30:00.002-04:00

Dang, I am still a bit chubby in these pictures! These were taken back in March. I am just now getting around to posting them, hehe. I am so glad that I have taken, and continue to take, lots of pictures all along this journey of transformation. It always blows my mind to see how different I look at various stages along the way. Two weeks ago I went for my six month dental appointment and was absolutely shocked by the reaction I got while I was there.

Everyone stood up to greet me as I went back for my exam. It was as if all the employees were called to come see what I had done. I could tell that they were in shock. They could not believe that I was able to do this without surgery. One person kept telling me how pretty I was. After she had said that for the 7th time, I probably got an odd expression on my face because she then said "Oh, you were pretty when you were fat too!" Another told me, and this I hear a lot, is that I look like the daughter of my former self. It felt really good to have them react like that, although I was a bit surprised as they had seen me six months prior and I am only about 20-25 lbs lighter now.

Personally, I did not think that I look that much different than I did in December of last year. However, after looking at these pictures taken in March, I must admit that I see a huge difference. Anyway, I did this scrapbook page mainly to document my morning routine. It is still pretty much the same although the hours change sometimes. I get an average of 3 hours sleep every night. I know that is not good but somehow I seem to function best this way. If I do not go to the gym first thing in the morning, there is a 99% chance that I will not go at all that day. I have to get in there early if I intend to get to work on time so I don't really have a choice. Thank goodness there are always other people there working out as well so I don't ever feel like I am in this all alone. Well it's time to get outta here. Have a great day everyone. As always, thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

A Journey Back In Time

2011-09-26T03:30:00.079-04:00

Hi guys, hope all is well with you and that you had a wonderful weekend. Today I am sharing two separate scrapbook spreads. Remember that day we spent at Marietta Square and then at the Irish pub etc.? Remember me saying that there was a lot more to that day? Well here are some more scrapbook entries from that day. This is actually how we started our little excursion that day. We met some friends at the Southeastern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia, and spent the next four hours exploring the museum. Yep, you read that right, four hours! We would have been there longer but the girls, Jen and I, had had enough and were famished and ready to eat! I am not sure the guys were finished, but they gave in to our demands to leave.

On this second page you get to see two of the exhibits. Trust me, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I was pleasantly surprised by how large this museum was and how beautiful the exhibits were.

That's it for today. I am still working on scrapping pages of the other exhibits as well as our little "back in time" shopping trip that finished off the day. Have a great day everyone. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Top of the morning to ya!

2011-09-22T03:30:00.026-04:00

Good morning everyone! Me here again with another digital scrapbook page. Remember that Irish pub I mentioned in my Tourist for a day post? Well here is the scrapbook spread I did of our visit there. The pub was Johnnie McCracken's and it is an odd little place with lots of personality.

I told you about the signs and Irish sayings they have all over the walls. Naturally I had to take pictures of them all, or at least of the ones I saw. It was a bit of a challenge getting them all to fit on this double page spread but I managed to somehow. I am happy with the way this page turned out because it really does portray what it was like being there. Hope you like it. Well that's it for today. Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Oh Boy!

2011-09-21T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! How is your week going so far? Mine is a little weird. It's only Wednesday and I have already smoked two electrical items. I mean literally. There was smoke coming out of them! The first was my beloved laser printer. It stopped printing suddenly so I started tinkering with it. The next thing I knew there was this nauseating, "burning wire" smell accompanied by smoke. At that point, I figured I better trash the printer as I did not want to burn the house down! So no more printing digi files for me until I get a new printer. Then yesterday morning, as I was making my protein shake, the little blender I use started to smoke. What in the world??? Twice in one week! Hopefully it's just coincidence! Today I am sharing a card I made for someone who is expecting a baby boy.

As you can see I tried paper quilting. I used several baby boy papers from Sandylion, cut them into squares and taped them together at the back with adhesive tape. I then machine stitched the paper. Yep you read that right. No faux stitching today, hehe! Next, using the Go Kreate nesting frame "Concentric Frilly Square #2" dies I framed the quilted piece. I also added two embossed panels. These were embossed with the Stampin up "Square Lattice" folder. The "Oh Boy" stamped design at the middle of the card is from Hampton Art. I also added a sentiment at the bottom using a stamp from the Stampin up set "By Ones & By Twos".

Now for one of my pet peeves! I absolutely hate when the rubber on the back of a stamp is attached crookedly! And that is exactly what happened with the "sweet little one" stamp I used at the bottom. The one in the center (in black) is the first one I stamped. This was supposed to be the only one but as you can see it was terribly crooked. So I stamped two more, one above and one below to make it look like an intentional design. Some design, huh? LOL! Oh well that's all I have for today. Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Strike a Pose!

2011-09-20T03:30:00.004-04:00

Hi! I hope you are all having a wonderful day. I'm back with another digital scrapbooking page. These images were taken at the end of July. The story behind them is in the journaling on the right. I had not planned on scrapping these photos but I fell in love with the large one on the left and decided that it had to go in the scrapbook. So I threw in the other pictures on the right, since it needed to be a two page spread, hehe.

So what do I love so much about that picture on the left? I love the strength and bold confidence that it portrays. That is so not me! I am still, on most days, an insecure little mouse ready to put myself down and beat myself up for not being good enough. But I am working on that and aspiring to be a strong, confident woman! LOL! I do love to fool around in front of the camera though and pretend to be the person I know I will be some day. Like it's said "Fake it till you make it!" LOL! Have a great day everyone. Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Some mornings you just know...

2011-09-19T03:30:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had the most gorgeous weather here the past two days. I sure hope it continues for a while. I have the perfect card to share this Monday morning. Well, perfect may be too much of a stretch, but it sure does seems to fit the overall Monday morning mood. LOL!

I used a couple of stamps in the front of the card. The main image, the coffee cup, is from Hero Arts. I stamped it on craft paper and colored it with Copic markers. I also stamped it a second time on white card stock, colored the center, cut it out and paper pieced it to the Kraft cut-out. On the left is some pink textured card stock that was cut with one of the Spellbinders "Wonky Rectangles" Nestabilities. I then used the Inkadinkado "Coffee Menu Mocha Latte" stamp to create the background.

On the right is a piece of white card stock. I place the sentiment, from Stampendous, at the bottom of this piece. I thought it would be neat to give the effect of spilled coffee at the top and to do that I used the "Coffee Stain" rubber stamp from Inkadinkado and "Antique Linen" distress ink.. I then added some faux stitching to the edges around the white card stock to complete the front of the card.

Here is a look at the inside. As you can see I also used the coffee stain stamp on the inside. Since the sentiment on the front of the card mentioned this being a two cup day, I added a cute little two cup image from Studio G and colored it with Copic markers.

That's all I have for today! Have a great one. Be safe and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Off-the-wall...

2011-09-16T03:30:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone? Aren't you happy it's Friday? I certainly am! Today I have a different type of craft project to share with you. It's not a card or jewelry, or even food related, instead it's wall art that you can create yourself. This all started when I got tired of staring at one of the undecorated walls in my office. It's the largest wall in there and whenever I look at it , it always seems like something is missing. So I figured I would paint something to put there, ya know, add a little piece of me to the wall, LOL! Since my department deals a lot with body image issues etc., I decided to create a four piece silhouette and in the center I would place some some type of vinyl lettering wall sticker that says something about confidence. I thought this could possibly inspire someone that was beating up on herself to realize that she could release her inner diva by simply believing in herself. The image below is kinda what I saw in my mind's eye, kinda.

So I purchased a package of 4 cork tiles as seen in the picture below. I picked it up at Wal-Mart.

I did not want to make an error on the tile so I drew the image unto a piece of plain white paper first. Then I carefully cut out the image, placed it on the tile and traced around it with a sharpie marker. I chose a marker color that was close to the paint I was going to use in the next step, so that they would blend seamlessly.

Since I was going to use red paint on this particular tile, I chose a red sharpie marker. Below you can see the outline for my first silhouette. I used regular craft acrylic paint that you can get at any craft store or Wal-Mart. They are very inexpensive.

Now it was time to start painting! This needed to be done carefully and precisely. Don't let those words intimidate you though. It's easy! Using a small artist brush, I started painting around the edges of the image, being careful not to go inside the image. I applied two coats of paint in this manner.

Below is what the tile looked like when this part was completed. Now it was time for the easy part, which was to take a larger paint brush and finish the rest of the outer space. I used two coats of paint on this portion as well.

I did four tiles, each with a different image. I was so excited to hang them on the wall in my office but when I did, extreme disappointment! I hated it! So I took it down, threw it in a corner and purchased a metallic floral piece of artwork to go on the wall instead. It really did not look that much better but I was not about to continue obsessing about that wall so the metallic piece stayed. (you will see everything when I get around to doing the scrapbook page. LOL!)

Anyway, on Wednesday a co-worker came into my office and asked about the metallic floral thingy. I told her I had painted something for the wall but ended up hating it so I purchased and hung that piece instead. She then asked if I still had the stuff I had painted. I told her it was in the corner, on the floor. She went over and got it and all I can say is that it was love at first sight! Since she liked it so much I told her to take it as I would probably just end up trashing it. Less than 7 minutes later, it was hanging on one of the walls in her office! You can see it in the picture below. What is that saying about one man's junk??? LOL! I must admit, it did look good in her office.

I can see a lot of possibilities for a project like this. Imagine something like this with silhouettes of someone's children, grandchildren, family members, pets, friends or any number of objects. You can arrange the tiles in many different ways or even frame them, separately or together! You can select colors to match your decor, place it on top of a shelf, add words to the images and on and on. Even though it did not work out for me this time, I still wanted to share the idea as I know it could possibly spark your imagination or inspire you in some way to create a silhouette piece of your own.

I guess I was still obsessing about my office wall after all, because I just ordered a vinyl lettering piece from Amazon.com. You can see what it looks like below. I think those words are pretty inspirational and in the end that is what I am after. I want the people that come in there to leave inspired and motivated to achieve the things they want.

OK, enough babbling from me! Thank you so much for visiting. You guys have a phenomenal weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

At The Square...

2011-09-15T03:30:00.061-04:00

Sooooo, have y'all stopped by Michael's and picked up your rewards card yet? I got mine this past week. I was one of the lucky few to test the rewards program last year and I must say it was pretty SA-weet! Not sure I will benefit that much from it now as I do not shop the craft stores that much anymore. It will be nice to save something when I do visit though. OK, today I am sharing a layout that documents some of what we did back on August 27th.

I talked a little bit about this in my "Tourist for a day" post. There is a lot more that took place that day as you will see in upcoming scrapbook pages I scrap about that day. Like the title says, we were at the Marietta Square in the heart of downtown Marietta. It's a beautiful place that I definitely plan to re-visit once the temperature cools down. Next time I will make sure I wear walking shoes, hehe! I added some journaling, in white, to the green box on the left. Unfortunately it was done after I had already uploaded this image and I did not feel like re-sizing and uploading the image again, so just imaging a block of white text in that green square. LOL! Well that's it for today! Take care and until next time, Happy Crafting!

September Morn...

2011-09-14T03:30:00.002-04:00

Remember me saying not too long ago that we had a rough week at work and so that weekend I decided to make "cheer up" cards for my co-workers? Well here is another one of those cards I made that weekend. Started with brown card stock for the base card. This one is a bit lighter the the usual dark brown that I tend to use. I really like the shade of this brown, unfortunately I have no idea where I got it. It's one of the many in my pile, hehe.

The main image is "Freedom" from Karen's Doodles. Colored her with Copic and Triart markers, then framed her with the Spellbinders "Wonky Rectangles" dies. The sentiment is from the Stampin up set "Edgy Eloquence". The label is from the JustRite "Fancy Labels" set and was cut with a die from the Spellbinders "Labels 18" set.

Below is a look at the inside. The images used, including the sentiment highlighted in yellow, are from a stamp set by Our Craft Lounge called "Granny's Support Team". The sentiment at the bottom is from the Stampin up "edgy Eloquence" set ant the other sentiment is from the "Faith Freetings" set from TPC Studio.

That's it for today! Got another scrapbooking page to share tomorrow. Until then have a great day and Happy Crafting!

Noooooo Way!

2011-09-13T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hi guys, hope you are all doing well. Remember some time ago I mentioned doing a scrapbook layout about all the things that went wrong with my garden this year? Well here it is.

The first thing to go wrong was running into Mr. Froggy under the pepper plants. I know he is cute and all but seeing him there ruined the feeling of zen I would get being around the plants. Next on the list was realizing that the tomato plants I purchased were mislabeled at the store. So instead of planting Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes, I unknowingly planted Cherry and Roma. Sheesh, I hate cherry tomatoes!

I was so looking forward to picking all those habanero and bell peppers that were out there, only to come home one day and find that the racoons had beaten me to it! OMG, that was an awful sight! I just stood there in disbelief, staring at the plants loaded with half eaten peppers and tomatoes! The half eaten tomatoes were also being devoured by ants, while caterpillars chomped away at the leaves and stems! Ugh! That's when I decided that maybe this was not a good idea after all.

So there it is. Still haven't decided if I am willing to do this again next year. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! LOL!

Oh, there is something else I wanted to share today. Guess what I ran into at Wal-Mart recently? Studio G stamps! YES, GET OUTTA HERE!!! LOL!

They were being sold for 97 cents each. That's it for today. Time to hit the gym now. Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Just needed to unplug...

2011-09-12T03:30:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for the disappearing act last week! I just got super busy. It was one of those weeks where you barely have time to breathe. Ever had one of those? Well I finally had to break down and admit to myself that I could not possibly do it all, so something had to give. And so I decided to limit my internet use for a few days. That meant no blogging, checking e-mails, or surfing etc., outside of what was required for work. Anyway today I am back and have a thank you card to share. It's a pretty card but unfortunately didn't photograph that well..

Can you tell that I have taken a liking to the color turquoise lately? LOL! I think this is the third or fourth turquoise card I have made recently. The sentiment is from Stampendous. The Cherry Blossom branches on the right were made with a stamp from the Stampin up Eastern Blooms set and the flowers are from the Martha Stewart "Camellia" Stamp set. These were heat embossed. I then sponged some distressed ink around the edges of the turquoise panel. That's pretty much it! Well I gotta run. Tomorrow I will be back with a scrapbook page. Have a wonderful day everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting.

En Pointe...

2011-09-02T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hiya everyone! Can you believe we are actually in September?! Sheesh, this means that I need to switch gears and start working on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas cards! LOL! I also need to hurry up and finish my 2010 scrapbook so I can send it off to print. Ahhhhh, I am just so busy with work and family that I haven't had much time to sit down and scrap. But I have been taking a lot of pictures so one of these days I will catch up, hehe! Today I am sharing a birthday card that a parent can give to his or her little ballerina.

Three image stamps were used on this card. They are all from the Stampin up Set "En Pointe". I wanted the card to have a 'soft' feel to it, so I chose to stamp the images in grey rather than black. Two sentiments were added. The one at the top is from the Cloud 9 Design "Simple Thoughts- Girl" set and the one at the bottom right is from Hero Arts. I also used one of the stamps from the Tim Holtz "Nature's Elements" set to add a little "pink dust" to the second sentiment.

The sentiment at the top was framed with the Quickutz Nesting Label "Nameplate". Two dies from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities set "Doodle Parts" were used to add a little swirly design to the top and bottom of the sentiment. I continued swirling by adding an embossed element to the top right. This was made with one of the embossing strip folders fromthe Sizzix "Wedding" set.

That's all I have for you this Friday! Now it's off to the gym and then to work. Will be back early to pack up the birds and the husband and head on out to spend the weekend with the parents. Hope you all enjoy your long Labor Day weekend! Have tons of fun and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Fluttering by....

2011-08-31T03:30:00.004-04:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I am sharing another simple card. I started with a brown card stock base. I then added an orange panel and stamped a floral image off to the side.The image was later colored with Copic markers.

Unfortunately, I do not have the name of the stamp I used. It's an unmounted stamp I purchased years ago at Garden Ridge. The sentiment at the bottom is from the Inkadinkado "Garden Flower" set. Using the Tim Holtz "Spice Marmalade" distress ink, I lightly sponged the edges of the orange card stock. I then added some ribbon and a couple of punched butterflies to complete the card. Hope you like it.

That's it for today. See you next time. Until then, Happy Crafting!

Tourist for a day...

2011-08-30T03:30:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I forgot to ask about your weekend. I had an interesting one. Hubby and I got together with some friends and played tourist for a day, as we explored downtown Marietta. None of us had ever been there before, so it was fun to walk around and take in the view. Naturally, I had to trail behind with camera in hand.

We had lunch at this Irish Pub and I must say the food was absolutely delicious!

However, what I loved the most was all the Irish sayings they had scattered on the walls. They certainly gave me a chuckle. Here are a few...

Can't wait to scrapbook this stuff! LOL! Well that's all I have for today. Have a great one. Be careful out there and until next time, Happy Crafting!

A Simple Monday

2011-08-29T03:30:00.005-04:00

Welcome back everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. This Monday I am keeping things simple with a quick one layer card. Seriously, this one can be made in less than 5 minutes! You may have noticed that I've been into silhouettes a lot lately. I find them quite appealing and so for today's card I've decided to make a tall, simple, silhouette card (TSSC).

I started with a piece of turquoise card stock. I have been using this color a lot lately as well. I folded the card stock in half vertically, trimmed it a bit and rounded the edges using the Fiskars corner rounder. Now it was time for the fun part ~ Stamping! The branches and birds, along the left side of the card, are from the Inkadinkado "Delicate Branches" clear stamp set. This is a really nice set and will probably make some pretty Christmas cards. The sentiment is from the "Card Crafting Hello" set from TPC Studio and I placed it at the bottom of the card. That's all there was to it! Hope you like it. Well I gotta run. Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Oh NUTS!!

2011-08-26T03:30:00.012-04:00

Hey, hey it's FRIDAY, yippee! Some parts of our country are being threatened by Hurricane Irene. As this system moves closer to landfall I pray for the safety of everyone in its path. Today I am sharing a card I made for a co-worker. We had a rough week in the office and I thought everyone could use a little cheering up. So I made everyone a card. LOL! This particular co-worker needed a little extra TLC as she recently found out that her husband of 21 years has been cheating on her for the past six years and now wants to move in with his "girlfriend". Talk about drama!

I wanted to make a card that was touching and sympathetic, with a little bit of humor tossed into the mix. Kinda wanted to cheer her up I guess. Didn't want it to be completely sappy, you know what I mean? I created a scene on the front of the card by adding some black construction paper at the bottom to represent the road. The background was chalked to represent the sky. The tree is an unmounted stamp I purchased from I Brake For Stamps. It was colored with Copic Markers. The sentiment at the top is from Stampabilities and the ones below are from the Stampin up set "Hard to Say".

Finally we come to the adorably, funny little image on the right. This is a digi stamp from DZ Doodles called "Thelma Mobile". I think she is perfect for this scene, hehe! My co-worker will get the humor as she drives just like Miss Thelma here in this image. Whenever I am in the front passenger seat of her car, she would always put her hand over me to prevent me from going through the windshield every time she steps on the brakes! LOL! I printed the image on a separate piece of card stock, colored it with both Copic and Triart markers and then cut it out and attached it to the front of the card. Below you can see I was playing around with the placement of the car. Because I wanted to add a little humor to the card, I decided to tilt the image slightly on its side.

Here is a look at the inside. The sentiment at the bottom is from Hampton Arts and the one inside the label is from the Stampin Up "Hard to Say" set. The label was created with a stamp from the JustRite "Fancy Labels" set and cut with one of the Spellbinders Labels 18 Nestabilities dies. The black flowers at the top were made with a stamp from the Inkadinkado "Garden Flower" set. Finally we have the woman on the bottom left. She is a rubber stamp from "Rubber Romance" called "Lulu with the Curls".

That's it for today! Have a great weekend everyone. As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Wednesday Blues....

2011-08-24T03:30:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody, it's hump day! Today I have a simple one layer card to share. Yep, I made another one, hehe. As you can see the front of the card is pretty simple with just an image an a sentiment. I started with a dark blue card stock for the base then heat embossed the crochet image with opaque white embossing powder from Stamp n Stuff. This beautiful crochet doily is from Stampin up and is called "Hello Doily". The sentiment is from the Inkadinkado "Garden Flower" set.

Here is a peek at the inside. The sentiment is from Stampendous and is called "For All You Do." I also stamped the doily on the inside. But this time I just used blue ink, no embossing. When using just ink, I had to stamp the image several times in order to get a good impression. This was the frustrating part. After tossing several pieces of white paper with poor impressions, I finally had to give in and go get my stamping mat. That did the trick.

That's it for today! I need to get going so have a great day everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Playing in the dirt...

2011-08-23T03:30:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Hope your week is going well so far. I've got a scrapbook page to share today. You may remember me writing about my 2011 garden adventures earlier in the year, well I have started scrapbooking them. LOL! This is the first of two 2011 garden spreads.

In the second spread, I will show pictures of some of the things that went wrong with my little garden. Hopefully I could have that one completed and up on the blog by Thursday. Well that's it for today. Join me tomorrow for a one layer card. Think I am getting the hang of them. LOL! Until then, have a great day and Happy Crafting!

Oh Monday, Monday...

2011-08-22T03:30:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's another glorious Monday and the start of a new work week! Hope you all had a terrific weekend. Today I am sharing a thank you card I made over the weekend. I did not intend for it to look like a Christmas card, but for some reason it reminds me of Christmas. Oh well, maybe I will get a special Christmas present this year and use this card to say thank you! LOL!

It's a pretty simple card. I started with a brown card base. Stamps from the Stampin up "Snow Swirled" set were stamped randomly, in various shades of brown, on cream card stock to create the background. Then, on the top left, I used the "Starburst Lace" stamp from Hero Arts. It was heat embossed with opaque white embossing powder from Stamp n Stuff. Then I sponged the background with Antique Linen distress ink from Tim Holtz.

Next I added the sentiment at the bottom. This was made with two stamps. The larger one is from Stampabilities and the smaller is from the Stampin up set "Thanks For Everything". Brown ribbon was added to the top right corner to finish the card. Hope you like it. Well I gotta run. Have a great day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Just Saying Hello

2011-08-19T03:30:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! We just have to make it through today and then we can relax for the next two days or, if you're like me, catch up on some household chores! I have a short post for you today as there is not too much to explain about this card. It's a simple thinking of you card.

I stamped the grass in brown using the one of the stamps from the Stampin Up "Inspired by Nature" set. The flowers are also from this same set. They were heat embossed with opaque white embossing powder from Stamp n Stuff. Using brown Copic markers, I added a few brush strokes at the bottom of the grass to make them look fuller. The sentiment, which is from Studio G, was then stamped at the bottom and I lightly sponged the edges of the background to complete the front of the card. The scallop border you see on the right is actually on the inside of the card and was made with the Fiskars "Scallop Sentiment" border punch. That's it for today! Have a wonderful and productive weekend everyone. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Shear Delight...

2011-08-17T03:30:00.001-04:00

I was going through my collection of unmounted stamps this past weekend and came across this cute hair stylist/client combo. I don't remember the name of it but am fairly certain I purchased it from I Brake For Stamps a couple years ago. I couldn't believe I had not used it before so I rectified that right away! LOL! I made a thank you card, that someone can give to their hairdresser to show appreciation for the fabulous work she did. I will probably sell this card since I don't have a hairdresser myself. Here is what the card looks like...

The label on the front of the card is from Studio G and the sentiment is from the Stampin Up "Glam Girl" set. I stamped some scattered dust at the center of the label using one of the stamps from the Tim Holtz "Nature's Elements" set. Below is a look at the inside.

All of the images, on the inside of the card are from the SU "Glam Girl" set, except for the two top sentiments on the right. They are from Stampabilities and SU "Thanks For Everything". That's it for today. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

A Guiding Light...

2011-08-15T03:30:00.006-04:00

Morning all! Did you all have a great weekend? Mine went fairly well. It was way too hot to be outside, so I stayed at home. I got a lot of crafting done, which is good. I love it when I feel inspired and ideas come easily to me. A friend wanted me to make a birthday card for her son and in the picture below you can see what I came up with.

I came really close to making this a one layer card but alas I just had to add more stuff! LOL! It's still a fairly simple card to make, though. I used plain white card stock for the base and stamped the lighthouse image at the bottom left. It's from the Inkadinkado "Down by The Seaside" clear stamp set. I stamped it in color, which was a bit of a chore as I had to carefully mask multiple areas and be sure not to let the ink get onto unwanted parts of the stamp.

Once the image was stamped, I used my Copic markers to add more detail and depth to the stamped colors. I stamped a sentiment at the bottom right of the card. It is from the Studio G. The sentiment and label at the top is also from Studio G. The clouds in the background were made with chalk and a template from Bev Rochester. To complete the card I added two strips of red card stock and some bling. That's all I have for today. Thanks for visiting. Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Girlfriends...

2011-08-12T02:11:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Aren't you glad it's Friday? I most certainly am! Today I decided to to share a little humor. Remember I mentioned how much I love the new "Girlfriends" line from Artistic Impressions? On today's card I am using another stamp from that line. This one is called "My Favorite Things". I just love how these four girlfriends are huddled together, salivating at that coffee stand. Yep, that was actually a coffee stand but I changed the coffee menu at the top to display some disgusting sandwiches instead. LOL!

I came up with this idea after coming across this funny quote by Beth McCollister on the net. For some reason it reminded me of this image so I decided to use it as the sentiment. I colored the image with Copic markers and the sentiment was computer generated and printed. I then completed the card by adding a red border to the left and a black border to the right. These were made with the "Bubbles" border punch from EK Success. That was it! Pretty simple huh?

Well I'm going to hit the sack now. Thanks for visiting. Have a super, fantastic weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Running at dusk...

2011-08-10T03:30:00.004-04:00

Morning everyone! Here is another card I made at the same time as the one I showed last Friday. It's also a silhouette, motivation and dusk card. I am really drawn to cards like these and will probably make a few more in the coming weeks.

This one was super simple. I started with white card stock for the base. At the bottom I placed the sentiment which was computer generated and printed. Another piece of white card stock was then used for the background image. This was sponged using chalk inks to create a background scene. The weeds at the bottom were created using an unmounted "weeds" stamp. I don't recall the name of the stamp but remember purchasing it from I Brake For Stamps.

To create the silhouette of the runner, I simply found a picture of a runner, placed it against some black card stock and then cut it out. Only the portion from the hips downwards was used as this made the scene look more dramatic. It was then matted on blue card stock and glued to the card base. Well that's all I have for today. Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The weigh-in...

2011-08-08T03:32:00.039-04:00

Hiya everyone! Greetings from Hotlanta. Today I am sharing a card that can either be used as a friendship or a thank you card. The second I saw this image I knew I had to have it. It is part of Art Impressions new "Girlfriends" line and is appropriately called "The weigh-in". I have always been a fan of Art Impressions stamps but the new "Girlfriends" line of stamps is simply one of my favorites!

My only regret with this card was not coloring the image with Copics. Since the price of Copic markers went up last week, I figured I would start forcing myself to get used to other coloring media. However, I think this image would have looked much better with Copic markers instead of colored pencils.

As you can see, there is not really much to this card. There is the image, different pieces of colored card stock and the sentiment which was computer generated and printed. Hope you like it. Well that's it for this Monday. Have a great day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Reach...

2011-08-05T03:45:00.005-04:00

Good Friday morning to everyone! I am sitting here at the computer about to start my day. It's so darn hot here in Georgia, but I know it could be much worse. There is a little devil perched on my shoulder, helping me to come up with excuses not to go to the gym today. My brain however, is repeating one of my many mantras, today it is chanting the immortal words of Gary Gilmore and Nike "Just do it." But I don't wanna. LOL! Anyways, by the time I am finished with this post, I will probably be in the mood to go work up a sweat.

Lately I have been drawn to silhouettes, words of motivation and images at dusk. I decided to put all three together to create today's card. I figure it could be used as a graduation card, a card for someone who is striving to achieve something major or for someone who is trying to overcome some obstacle. I started with white card stock for the base, then, from the bottom upwards, started sponging using the ink pads you see in the picture below.

From black construction paper, I cut out a mountainside and a climber. These were then glued to the left side of the previously sponged area. I was finished at this point but then decided to add something more. I created a label to place at the top right using a label and sentiment stamp from the JustRite "Kindness" and "Fancy Labels" stamp sets. They were stamped on white card stock and them chalked.

There you have it! That's my card for today. Well, I really should get my butt out of this chair now, so I am saying goodbye until next week. Have a great weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Hands of Time

2011-08-03T03:30:00.001-04:00

Happy hump day everyone! Hope your week is going well. I am in a bit of a hurry so I can't stay long. Today I am sharing a masculine birthday card. Actually there is nothing preventing this from going to a female but it has more of a masculine look so I am gonna give it to a guy, hehe.

This is a super easy card to make. I chose brown card stock for the card's base and used a corner rounder to cut the edges at the bottom. Kraft card stock formed the background panel and this was embossed with the "Pocket Watches" embossing folder from Tim Holtz. Before embossing the card stock, I inked one side of the embossing folder with brown ink. I think this enhances the distressed look. Then I simply stamped the sentiment at the bottom and the card was complete. Got to get going now. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Missing Mojo...

2011-08-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. As predicted, I totally crashed and burned this weekend! I hate feeling that tired and sleepy but did end up getting a lot of rest. Guess I needed it, hehe! I attempted to make several cards this weekend but just was not happy with how they were turning out. Seems like my mojo is still missing. I now have a bunch of half finished cards lying around. This was the best of the lot so I decided to finish it and present it today.

The base is yellow card stock, unto which I attached a white panel. Using the circles stamp from the Stampin up "So Much" set, I randomly stamped circles on the background in a couple different colors. Then using the "Thanks" stamp from the same set I stamped in each of the circles. The "So Much" sentiment at the center is also from the same SU set. I wanted it to stand out, so I took a yellow ochre ink pad from ColorBox and rubbed it over the sentiment to create the effect of a paintbrush stroke. This panel was then embossed with a folder from the Tim Holtz "Damask & Regal Flourishes" set. I guess I was not thinking, because it was only after embossing this panel, that I realized I should have used a folder with a circular pattern instead.

At the bottom of the card, I added a tag that was created with a die from the Spellbinders "Ribbon Tag Trio 3" set. At the center of this tag I stamped a sentiment from the SU "Sweet Little Sentiments" set. I finished by adding some jute packing twine to the left and that was it. Got to get outta here now. Have a wonderful day and week everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

I'm hair today!

2011-07-29T03:30:00.002-04:00

Morning everyone! It's Friday and I have yet another full day ahead of me. This has been one crazy week! I am so glad it's almost over. I have been trying to get so many different things accomplished that I have only slept about 3 hours each night this week. I have a feeling I am going to crash tomorrow!

I don't have any cards to share today, well I actually do have one but it is so ugly, I am not so sure I want to share it. It's there sitting on my craft table. Maybe it will grow on me one of these days and I will get up the nerve to share it. All it takes is one bad card to kill my mojo for a couple of days. LOL! So today I decided to share a scrapbook page with a bunch of self portraits instead.

Because I workout most days, I find it easier to keep my hair in a ponytail or braid. No sense having a fancy hair-do just to get it all sweaty in the end. But after my workout and shower on Monday I decided to get out the blow dryer and flat iron and go to work! LOL! Since this is something I rarely do now, I had to take a couple of pictures for the record book, hehe! And so the end result was this scrapbook page. Hope you like it.

Hmmmn, this just reminded me of another fun fact about myself that I have not shared before!LOL! Do you know that I have only been to a hair stylist 3 times in my entire life! And all three times were to get my hair cut. Yep, that's how big a "do-it-yourselfer" I am, hehe! Have a super fantastic weekend everyone. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Puzzled...

2011-07-26T07:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone. Hope you are having a great week so far, well... heat permitting LOL! Today is a long day for me, so, without further ado, I'll get right down to business. I'm sharing a romantic card I made recently using one of those adorable House-mouse images. Can't help but love these little mice. The one I used is called "Fragrant Flower", from Stampabilities. I was going for a monotone look, so only gray Copic markers were used to color the image.

Once I was done coloring the image I used the Cuttlebug "Puzzle" die to turn the image into a puzzle. The edges of each puzzle piece was then chalked before being reassembled. A decorative border was place on the right side. This was made with the Spellbinders "Classic Lace" die. To complete the card I added the sentiment and label, both of which were made using the JustRite "Kindness" set. That's pretty much it! Well I gotta run. Have a great day everyone. Be careful out there, drink lots of water and stay out of the sun. As always, hanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

In My Thoughts...

2011-07-22T03:30:00.001-04:00

Well I finally did it! Woohoo I made a one layer card! Can you tell I am excited? LOL! One layer cards may come easy to some but I find it next to impossible to stick with just one layer! But I finally did it and may even try it again. I started with plain white card stock, and using the "Riot of Petals" background stamp from Stampin Up, I stamped the flowers at the bottom. I colored them with Prismacolor pencils and purposely left parts uncolored, hoping it would give the illusion of more texture.

I did have intentions of going back and tidying up the colors on the flowers but I was also trying to finish before the mail man got here and did not quite make it back to the flowers. I embossed part of the card with the "Elegant Bouquet" folder from Stampin up and added a sentiment from Stampabilities.

Here is a peek at the inside. As you can see, I also used the SU "Riot of Petals" on the inside. The sentiment at the center is from the SU set "Versatile Verses" and it was framed with a circle stamp from the SU "So Much" set.

That's all there was to it! As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Underwater Greetings

2011-07-20T03:30:00.103-04:00

Been up to anything interesting lately? Well on Sunday, I decided to concoct my own home-made, chemical peel to apply to the skin on my back. I did not feel like spending hundreds of dollars at the dermatologist for a professional peel so I figured I would get a couple of highly acidic fruits and whip up a peeling potion of my own. I did the first application on Sunday night. It sure stung like the real thing. LOL! Now, I have to wait and see if it works. If it does, I will share to recipe, hehe. Today I am sharing a card that I cased.

All the images used on this card, except the green leaves, fish and glittered shapes at the bottom, are clip art. The latter three are stickers. I started with plain white card stock for the base and used my MS scoreboard to score some vertical grooves for the background. I then used a grid stamp from Studio G to make the net at the bottom and added some glittered shapes and some seashell clip art, which I colored with Copic markers.

Some fish stickers were added and I did a banner at the top. A female diver was printed on some white card stock that was then cut with a circle Nestability. The background (circle) was colored with Copic markers and white acrylic paint was used for the air bubbles on the right side of her face. I then stamped the sentiment which is also from Studio G.

A circle frame was cut out of gray card stock to form a porthole window. I scored some grooves along this frame and colored with Copics and my Inkssentials white pen. After placing the frame on the image, I added the leaf stickers and some metallic dots to complete the card.

That's all I have for today. Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Here we go again!

2011-07-18T03:40:00.008-04:00

So it's Monday once again! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We had temps in the 80's over the weekend and what a relief it was from the scorching 90's we have been experiencing. Hubby and I decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and go play tennis.

We met an old friend of ours out there on the courts and caught up with him a bit before we actually started playing. It has been a few years since I played tennis but after the first 30 minutes it started to come back to me. Hopefully we will get a few more cool weekends so that we could go out there and play some more. Otherwise, we will just have to wait until fall. LOL!

And now for today's card. This one is pretty simple. It can be used as a congratulations or thank you card. I started by stamping the flowers on opposite corners of the white card stock. For this I used the "Riot of Petals" background stamp from Stampin up. I simply taped off the areas of the stamp that I did not want inked, leaving only a single flower each time. The leaves were made with stamps from the Me & My Big Ideas "Sassy Icons" set. After stamping the leaves, I used a Copic marker to added some detail.

Then with a fine point Sharpie pen, I drew some doodle lines to create a frame and stamped the sentiment in the center. The sentiment was created with a clear stamp but I do not have the name of the set as I discarded the packaging some time ago. That was before I started blogging and knew the importance of knowing where my craft items came from, hehe! All that was left to be done was to add a blue mat and attach to the yellow card base and the card was complete! Hope you like it. Have a great week everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

What's Cooking?

2011-07-14T03:35:00.003-04:00

The heat we have been experiencing in the deep south recently has been unbearable! It seems like it gets hotter every year! Yesterday we were under a heat advisory with expected highs in the mid 90's and a heat index of up to 110 degrees! I left the house around 4:30AM and usually it's pleasantly cool at that time in the morning, but the past few days it felt as if I was walking into an oven! I know it's much worse in states like Texas, Florida and Arizona.

All I can say is that Fall can't get here soon enough for me! Today I am sharing a birthday card that was requested by a friend of my mom.

I placed a banner on this card as well, using one of the diamond shapes from the Cuttlebug "Harlequin" plate. This time however, I cut each diamond shape in half instead of folding them over. Some tiny alphabet stamps were used to stamp the letters on the banner. Liquid glue and embroidery thread were used to form the faux line at the top of the banner.

The white panel behind the banner was embossed with the Cuttlebug "Happy Birthday" folder. The striped DP is from DCWV. The sentiment, from TPC Studio, was stamped at the bottom right of the card. I also added some balloons and then completed the card by adding the most adorable little chef image which I colored with Copic Markers. He is called ""Trattoria Chef" and he is from The Paper Shelter.

Well that's it for today! Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

I Want A Poker Face!

2011-07-12T03:40:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! Hope your week is going well so far. For me, so far, so good. Today I am sharing another scrapbook page. I have always been told about the funny facial expressions I make, but lately it seems I am hearing about it more and more. Hmmmn, I don't quite know what to do about this, as 90 percent of the time, I am not even aware that I am making these expressions until I look over and see one of my co-workers laughing at me. Apparently, while talking to someone, my facial expression would say various things, like "Wow that's interesting!", "Hmmn, I never thought of it that way!", "You are too funny!" or "You've peaked my interest. Tell me more!". Now, nothing is wrong with communicating those things non-verbally. However, I am being told that my facial expressions also communicate things like "Yeah right!", "You are so full of it!", "Just who do you think you are fooling?", "You really expect me to believe that?", "I am bored to death.", "Uh-huh, sure!" or "Somebody shoot me ~NOW!".

Now I must say, in my line of work, I hear the craziest stories! I mean seriously, it's hard to keep a straight face while listening to some of this stuff! LOL! Most of the time I am in utter shock, with my mind screaming, "I can't believe she/he just said that, OMG!!!" LOL! And because I have a vivid imagination, I am able to instantly picture the things or events that are being described to me and this certainly does not make it any easier to sit there void of expression or with a neutral, pretend smile on my face, hehe! But I have to TRY!

So this particular scrapbook page is just my way of laughing at myself and showcasing some of my various facial expressions. This is one of the reasons I love scrapbooking. It's a great way to take an intimate, more deeper look at yourself. And this could be a catalyst for making a positive change. After making this page, I had to admit that maybe my expressions are a little bit too transparent and as such I may need a little work on developing more of a poker face expression. So soon after making this page I checked myself into "Smile therapy 101" and "Adapting a Poker Face when smiling is not an option!".

Both these courses are being taught by one of my lovely co-workers. Don't know how she expects me to learn anything when she can't seem to stop herself from laughing. LOL! Well that's it for today folks! Enjoy the rest of your day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Congratulations Smarty Pants!

2011-07-11T03:30:00.124-04:00

Morning all! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I want to start by saying thank you for the sweet comments and birthday wishes on Friday's post. Today, I am sharing a couple of things, the first of which is this graduation card I made in a hurry last night. Completed this one in less than 10 minutes. That's what happens when you spend the entire day cleaning, cooking and doing laundry then as you are about to go to bed, you remember you have no material for the blog! Yikes! Had to do something fast and this was it.

It's a super easy card to make. Cream card stock was used for the base. At the very bottom I stamped a sentiment from Hampton Arts. I love this sentiment! Can you believe I got this rubber stamp at Big Lots for just a dollar? I used some graduation DP from Sandylion to form the patterned panel. Then, using a Boss Kut "Flourish" die, I created the flourish die cut which was placed at the center of the patterned panel. A second sentiment from the SU set "Sweet Little Sentiments" was placed on a Spellbinders label and some bling was added to complete the card.

Woke up the neighborhood yesterday morning!

Yep, as I was watering my vegetables, I noticed a pair of eyes staring back at me from one of the plant pots. Well I am terrified of frogs and toads, so I let out a loud scream as I dropped the watering can and took off running for the house! Hubby had to go outside and relocate the little guy otherwise, I am afraid that would have been the end of my 2011 vegetable garden as I was not going to go near those plants ever again! LOL!

I started this garden on June 13th and am already enjoying some of the produce. I swear, the smell and taste of home grown veggies is awesome! The ones at the grocery just do not compare. In the picture below, I am trying to be creative with a couple of the peppers I picked recently.

I also wanted to share a picture of my baby tomatoes. There are at least 25 tomatoes out there. Have no idea what I am gonna do with 25 ripe "Big Boy" and "Better Boy" tomatoes in a couple of weeks. Guess I will be giving a bunch of them away! LOL!

Oh well, let me wrap up this post now. Have a great day everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday My Love!

2011-07-08T03:39:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! Today is my husband's birthday so of course I had to set aside some time yesterday to make him a card. Wasn't sure what I was going to do at first but I had to make up my mind fast as I had procrastinated way too long and now it was down to the wire! LOL! All I knew was that I wanted to have a banner at the top and have it spell out something. That's a start right?

The above card is what I ended up making. I took some birthday paper from DCWV and matted it on a white card base. Using a blue chalk ink pad, I sponged around the edges. Also used one of the stitching stamps from the HOTP "Stamped Stitches" set to create the border around the DP.

Then it was time for my banner! I have wanted to make one of these for some time now but never got around to it. I took a piece of string and formed a "clothesline". Then using the medium diamond shape from the Cuttlebug "Harlequin" die plate, I cut five pieces from some yellow card stock.

I then folded each piece over the string and secured them with a glue dot. The word "Happy" was spelled out using the Quickutz "Aquarius" Alphabet die.

A red border was placed near the bottom. This was made with one of the dies from the Cuttlebug "Floral border" set. Then using a Studio G stamp, the sentiment was stamped unto yellow card stock and cut with a Spellbinders "Labels Ten" Nestability die. Next, I chalked around the edges and added some bling.

That was supposed to be it, but it looked a bit feminine so I had to do something to change that. I decided to add a male runner diecut to the center of the card. This was made with a die from the Quickutz "Runners" Cookie Cutter set. And since my husband loves soccer, I added a soccer ball to help personalize the card. To complete the card, I took a grey Copic marker (N3) and added a shadow to all of the elements on the card. And so, after approximately 90 minutes, the card was finally finished! LOL! Here is a peek at the inside...

That's it for today. Gonna go hit the gym now. Enjoy your Friday and have a super, fantastic weekend! As always, thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Six

2011-07-06T03:30:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! Hope you all are having a great week so far. I am busy like a bee and a bit exhausted. I did take some time last night to make a card, so today I am sharing the birthday card you see below. It's fairly simple and did not take that long to complete.

I started with a textured card base and attached a cream panel that was embossed with the "Happy Birthday" folder from Cuttlebug. Before embossing, I stamped the "Let's Celebrate" sentiment from TPC Studio. Once I was finished with the embossing, I inked around the edges. Then using one of the Spellbinders "LabelsTen" die, I cut a label from some polka dotted paper from My Mind's Eye. Next I used a number six die from the Quickutz "Mary Jane" set to cut the number six close to the edge of the patterned paper, backed it on a piece of solid brown paper and the card was complete. Hope you like it! Gotta run now. Have a great day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Birds Night Out...

2011-07-05T05:31:00.055-04:00

Hi everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! I know I have been scarce lately. I have just been so busy with work and some home projects that I have had no time at all for crafting. Also, the last couple of days we were away from home with no access to the internet so I really felt out of touch. How did we ever survive before, without the internet? LOL! OMG, I was so bored! I entertained myself by chasing bees! LOL! That gig ended when they started chasing me, hehe! I did get some really nice shots though. I will be sharing some of them this week on my photo blog. I was so looking forward to shooting the fireworks yesterday but we ended up getting home so late on Sunday that all I could do yesterday was recover. Besides, it rained here last night and even though I still heard fireworks going off, I would not have gone out with my camera in the rain.

Hopefully, I will catch up on my card making this coming weekend but until then all I have to share are some scrapbook pages, starting with this one. This is a "Birds Night Out" dinner with members of the Georgia Caged Bird Society. They hold these every couple of months, but this particular one was back in April of 2010. It's really neat as everyone can bring their pet birds to the restaurant with them. We usually dine outside on the patio and the birds sure attract a lot of attention as people pass by. There is nothing too special about this page. It's just a picture intensive layout on a yellow background. I threw in a couple of macaw clip art to emphasize the "bird" theme and added some journaling to complete the page. Hope you like it! That's it for today. Heading to the gym now. Haven't been since last Monday, ugh! Thanks for visiting. Have a super wonderful day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Stress...

2011-06-25T03:30:00.003-04:00

Happy Saturday everyone! This post is gonna be a real quick one. I saw this poster at my doctor's office recently and just wanted to share it with you. I figured we could all use a little help managing stress sometimes.

Remember you can click on the image for a larger version. That's it for today. I'm outta here! Have a great weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Doomsday Garage Sale...

2011-06-24T00:44:00.006-04:00

Hiya! Is it Friday yet? LOL! Gee I have been so busy this week that my head is spinning! Funny, but this week I learned something new about myself. I am empathetic to other people's misery to the point where it is detrimental to myself! I guess I have always been this way. I was just made more aware that it could turn into a problem this week. I am the type of person that would walk into a pet store and even though there would be a bunch of healthy, happy puppies jumping up and vying for my attention, I would seek out the shy, sickly looking, trembling little fella all by himself in the back! I can't help taking the pain of others and making it my own.

This may not be healthy though, as it has caused me a lot of stress and guilt this week. I work with individuals that struggle with weight issues and there are two people in particular this week that had me fighting to hold back the tears. They were in so much emotional pain. This one woman reminded me of myself over a year ago. I just wanted to hug her and tell her that everything will be OK and that she too will recapture her self confidence and find happiness again.

Then there was this poor guy that is under so much stress that his blood pressure was off the charts. He lost his car a couple months ago, so his only form of transportation is his feet! He walks an hour to and from work each day! I felt so bad for him. I met him for the first time yesterday. However, because of everything he was going through, and that ridiculously high blood pressure, I just couldn't live with myself had I let him walk home, while I drove by in my car. So I offered to drive him home and he accepted.

Needless to say when I told my mom and husband this, they were like "Don't you ever do that again! You could have been raped or murdered!!!" Although I seriously doubt that, I do understand what they were trying to tell me. I guess I just do not know where to draw the line. I seriously considered offering to go take him to work every day so that he would not have to walk but hubby talked me out of it.

I pray that things get better for him, and SOON! The stressful part is that I can't seem to stop worrying about him. So needless to say I came home and was in no mood to craft. So today I am sharing a scrapbook page I did last week. It's about our Doomsday garage sale. LOL! The event that led to me being bedridden with 103 temperature for almost two weeks.

That's all I have for today. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and please say a prayer for this poor guy if you can. His luck really needs to change. Thanks, and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Moments...

2011-06-23T03:30:00.047-04:00

Happy Thursday everyone! Yep, today is another scrapbook day. These pictures were taken a couple Saturdays ago when I was almost recovered from being sick and started getting out of the house again. We decided to go surprise my parents that day with an unannounced visit. Hubby and I posed for a few pictures while we were there and when dad got home he took us out back to show us his garden.

Boy oh boy, he had watermelons and cantaloupes and cucumbers, and apples and two different types of pears and peppers as well as a variety of herbs! It was truly amazing to see. Made me feel really bad since everything I planted died, ugh! I think I will try again with real plants this time instead of seeds. Here are some close ups of some of the stuff in his garden....

That's pretty much it for today. See you next time, but until then, Happy Crafting!

A Simple Thank You...

2011-06-22T03:30:00.009-04:00

Hi everyone! How are you all doing today? I sharing a super easy and quick card project today. The busier life gets the simpler the cards become! LOL! I am so looking forward to this weekend and a little R&R. For this project, I started with a white card base and added some pretty patterned paper from Cloud 9 Design.

Next I added a white panel that was embossed with the Kassie's Brocade embossing folder. Love that folder! On top of this I placed a "thanks" die cut that was made with a die from Spellbinders. I also used a Spellbinders butterfly die to create the butterfly at the bottom. I then added some bling and the card was finished.

That's all I have for today. Hope you like it! Have a fantastic day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Don't take my Kodachrome away!

2011-06-21T03:30:00.057-04:00

Hello there! Hope everyone is having a great week thus far. Today I am sharing another scrapbook spread. A few months ago I decided to give my photography blog a little make-over. The poor thing is like an abandoned child. LOL! Anyway I wanted to place a picture link on here and since I always love seeing images of people posing with their cameras, I figured I would take a few like those and select one of them for the blog.

I got a couple of good shots and after selecting the one I wanted, I figured I would put them into a scrapbook page as taking pictures is a big part of who I am. Basically that is how this page came about.

Before I go I also want to share a picture of the weight loss anniversary present I got myself to celebrate year #1. I found this sterling silver necklace with a dumbbell charm and thought it would be perfect! I was actually looking for a charm bracelet but, when I saw this, I knew it was the one!

That's it for today folks! Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

So Happy...

2011-06-20T03:30:00.058-04:00

Yes, Monday has rolled around once again! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was fabulous! Yesterday we took my Dad to Pappadeaux to celebrate Father's Day. The food was great and we had a really wonderful time. Today I am sharing a congratulations card I made for a friend who recently received some good news. I was so happy for her and the only image that could truly express the joy I was feeling was this little birdie from Doodle pantry called "Bird Bath Joy". I bet you think I'm gonna say I colored it with Copic markers. Uh-uh, you would definitely lose that bet today because I used Prismacolor pencils to color the image, hehe!

Truth be told, I temporarily "lost" my Copic markers. They were right in front of my face but I just couldn't see them so I ended up going with colored pencils instead. I used chalk for the sky and around the grass. The sentiment below the image is computer generated and printed and the one at the very bottom of the card is from the Stampin up "Small Script" set. After coloring the image, I used my scallop edge decorative scissors to create a border around the image and by this time I found my Copic markers so I used one of the yellow markers to to color in the scalloped edge.

I then attached the framed image to a piece of white card stock that was edged on two sides with the Martha Stewart "Wildflowers" deep edge punch. I chalked the edges and added some floral stickers to complete the front of the card.

Below is a peek at the inside. I created decorative corners with the same MS punch I used on the outside and added a sentiment from Stampabilities.

That's pretty much it! Have a great day everyone! Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

A Sweet Healthy Treat...

2011-06-18T03:30:00.004-04:00

It's Saturday, yaaaaay! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I just wanted to pop in to share something new I have been doing that some of you may actually enjoy yourself. I got this idea from my dad! Have any of you ever juiced before? I have, and it's a really healthy way to get your fruits and vegetables but it could also be a royal pain in the hiney if you juice everyday and have to clean and reassemble that machine each time! However, recently I was talking with my dad as he was telling me that he would juice a whole bunch at a time and freeze them in containers to take to work. Each day he would take one of these out and by miday it would be all melted and ready for him to consume. He said that if you freeze it right away, you preserve all the nutrients in the fresh juice.

Hmmmmn, great idea! Now 99% of the time I drink water and I'll tell ya, that could get very boring at times. Sometimes you just feel like drinking something different and this is where these juices come in. Today you get to peek into my freezer. In the picture above I juiced three different recopies. The green stuff on the bottom left is my vegetable juice. It may not look appetizing but I'll tell ya, it is delicious! Here is what's in it...

Celery stalks
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach
Broccoli
Apples ( The apples add sweetness turns this concoction from blah to delicious)

Now on to the really delicious sweet treats. For these I used my new Hamilton Beach dispensing blender that I picked up at Wal-Mart two weeks ago for $15! I love this gadget! Below is a picture of what it looks like. With this you can turn your fruits into smoothies and milkshakes.

So do you have any idea what the yellow stuff in my first picture is? Its a pineapple smoothie! I cut up a fresh pineapple into chunks, tossed it in this blender and added some diet green tea. Some type of liquid needs to be added to the fruit to aid in the blending process so I chose green tea as it adds to the flavor without overwhelming it. Just add enough to help it blend.

The burgundy looking concoction was also done in this blender and it tastes like heaven. LOL! For this one I blended the following...

Green tea
Left over pineapple from the previous drink
Fresh strawberries
Fresh blueberries
Frozen mango
Frozen dark cherries

Now if you want to be a little naughty, you can add some alcohol to the mix, hehe! Below is picture of hubby's favorite ice cream. I really wanted you to see the containers as I recycle them after all the ice cream has been eaten. The empty containers sure came in handy for storing some of the drinks.

That's all for today! Have a fantastic weekend. See you again on Monday but until then, Happy Crafting!

Perfect Sentiments...

2011-06-17T03:30:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone! This is gonna be a short post day! I just wanted to share a book I purchased a couple of weeks ago at Joann's Craft store. It's filled with sentiments for all sorts of occasions.

Sometimes, as card makers, we find it difficult to come up with the right sentiment, especially for the inside of our cards. Well this book is perfect for those times when you find yourself struggling for something to say! LOL! Here is a peek at one of the pages. Remember to click on the image for a larger view if you have trouble reading the small version pictured below.

That's all I have for today! As always thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

I am Woman...

2011-06-16T03:30:00.004-04:00

...hear me roar! LOL! Welcome back everyone! Got another scrapbook page to share today. This is another one of those garage work out spreads. Looks like I will soon be taking this show on the road! LOL! In July I am actually going to start teaching this "dance" routine on the regular at the gym. I am so looking forward to it as I know people are going to enjoy it and see results. It's also going to be so much fun to do in a group as opposed to by myself. I know they will be laughing at me and at themselves as well as some of the moves can be pretty comical as you can see from the pictures in this layout.

After choosing the colors and placing the pictures I had to decide on a title and add the journaling. I was having trouble coming up with this last bit as I have done so many of these work out pages before and figured what more can I say about all this! LOL!

When I get stuck coming up with a title, I turn to wordart. So I started to search through my wordart library and came across "I Am Woman" from Elegant Wordart. Hmmmn, I liked it a lot, so I decided to us it was the title and also used the song's lyrics in place of journaling. Have you ever paid attention to the lyrics in this song? It's pretty powerful! I'm sure the men out there will disagree! LOL!

I Am Woman

-Artist: Helen Reddy

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman

You can bend but never break me
'cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
'cause you've deepened the conviction in my soul

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land
But I'm still an embryo
With a long long way to go
Until I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to I can face anything
I am strong (strong)
I am invincible (invincible)
I am woman
Oh, I am woman
I am invincible
I am strong

Have a great day everyone! Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Tuxedo occasion...

2011-06-15T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, it's hump day and today I am sharing an anniversary card I made hubby for our upcoming wedding anniversary. I saw this beautiful tuxedo card over in the Scrapbook Trends idea gallery and knew I wanted to make one like that. I found the tuxedo template here. After cutting and putting the pieces together, I honestly did not see where there was any room for text. Can't have an anniversary card with no words, so I decided to attach the tuxedo to a base card instead of leaving it as a stand alone.

I did a couple of things differently. Instead of using ribbon for the cummerbund I used red card stock. I then added grooves with my Scorepal to give it that pleated look. I also used card stock for the bow. The roses are simply stickers. Below is a peek at the inside. I embossed the panel in the middle with the Stampin up "Framed Tulips" folder and then added a sentiment from the Fiskars "Simple Thoughts-Love" clear stamp set. On the left I added two images from the Inkadinkado "Wedding/Marriage" clear stamp set.

That is it for today! Thank you so much for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Talk to me...

2011-06-14T03:30:00.004-04:00

It's Tuesday and I am back with another scrapbook page. It's funny how this one came together. In April, Studio 68 was giving away this free quick page (the page on the left) to introduce their new "Chatterbox" digi-scrap set. When I saw the quick page, I immediately thought of all those pictures I snapped while being on the telephone. So I opened up the quick page, plugged in my pictures then typed my sentiment over the bottom word bubble and voila that page was done!

The only problem was now I needed to make a companion page for the right side. This turned out to be harder than I expected, especially since I did not purchase the set so I had no matching elements! LOL! I figured if I used similar colors, the pages would appear to match so that is what I did. Even though I absolutely love the quick page on the left, that style of scrapbooking is not exactly mine. I usually just plunk down pictures and may add an element or two to complete the theme. However the page on the left is really heavy on the elements if ya know what I mean! There are several bits of paper, buttons, swirly things and flowers etc.

Hmmmn, I needed that style to flow unto the page I was making on the right so I had to become an element heavy scrapper for an hour or so. LOL! Dang, it was like pulling teeth! Creating a one layer card might have been easier! LMAO! Well, at least I tried! Although if you look closely at both pages, the left seems to be easy, breezy and free flowing and the one I did on the right seems to be a little stiff, hehe! Oh well, it was fun and I do love that style so I need to force myself to do it more often.

I have taken up enough of your time today so I am am going to end here. Have a fabulous day everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Hang in there...

2011-06-13T03:30:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend! I am going to dive right into today's card. The main image on this card is from the "Silly Monkey" clear stamp set by The Paper Studio. This is a great set for any monkey lover. When I first saw this image, the phrase "Hang in there" immediately came to mind. Unfortunately that sentiment was not in the set. So I created the sentiment and rounded rectangle in Microsoft Word, printed it on some cream card stock and then stamped the image in the middle. I colored the image with Copic markers, chalked around it and attached to some background paper from Pressed Petals. Hope you like it.

I went ahead and created a "Hang in there" frame freebie for you. Have fun with it!

As always thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Knots Prayer...

2011-06-11T03:23:00.010-04:00

Hi everyone, welcome to the weekend! Hope you are having a great one. I won't keep you long today. I just wanted to pop in to share with you this bookmark I found. It's titled "The Knots Prayer". I think this is such a beautiful prayer for those times when we feel trapped or "tied up". If you are having trouble reading the print, simply click on the image for a larger version.

That's all I wanted to share today. Now back to enjoying the weekend! LOL! Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Amazing Dad...

2011-06-10T03:30:00.066-04:00

It's Friday! Just a few more hours now before the weekend is here! Hehe! Today I am sharing a Father's day card. The sentiment on the front is from Studio G and the image may look a bit familiar to you. For this image, I used the template I created for one of my previous Father's Day cards. I included a picture of that card below as well. However, the dad that will be receiving today's card is a forest ranger so I decided to make his outfit look like his uniform instead of a regular shirt and slacks.

Using the template, I cut the image out of Kraft paper and then used various shades of brown to define the wrinkles in the shirt and pants etc. I used black card stock to make the belt. Thought that would give a nice contrast. Then I decided to add a hat. OK, I know the hat looks a bit weird, like it has eaten his head or something. LOL! May have made the hat a little too big but did not feel like fixing it.

Below is a peek at the inside of the card. I used three different sentiments on the inside. The top one is from MSE, the one in the middle is from the Stampin Up "Wonderful Words" set and the one at the bottom is from Inkadinkado.

That's it for today. I noticed that the number of followers I have is slowly inching up to 300, so tell you what, when that number finally gets to 300, I will make this template available as a freebie! Sounds good? LOL! As always, thank you so much for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Coming back stronger...

2011-06-09T03:30:00.049-04:00

Hi everyone! Today I am sharing a 2010 scrapbook page. This one shows my gym routine. I have changed things up a lot in recent months but back in 2010 I was pretty regimented and followed this without fail until March of this year. Even now I wonder where I found the energy to do all this! LOL! I always started with 5 miles on the treadmill. Sometimes I would do 6, 7, 10 or 12 miles but that was rare! 5 miles was my standard.

After that I would cycle through these machines doing 50 reps for each exercise. I did them in 5 sets of 10, not 50 all at once. So today you get to see what landed me in the gym for 4 1/2 hrs to 5 hrs every day! This definitely made me a stronger person but all I could say is thank goodness I no longer feel the need to go to this extreme, unless I want to on a particular day. Yep, there are days I feel like I could stay in there all day but back when these shots were taken I felt like I "had" to be in there forever in order to achieve my goal.

Have any of you tried using those pull-up bars? I have always wanted to get one! This past weekend I tried out the one my mom got at Wal-mart and I liked it. I was only on there a few seconds as I did not have the energy to do any strenuous activity but it was enough to make decide to get one. So a trip to Wally World is in my near future! LOL!

There is one last thing I wanted to share today. Sometimes in life there are people who do something so amazing that they change our way of thinking, and make us re-evaluate what we think is possible for us. Recently I came across such a person. I for one, hate the concept of age and defining people or myself by that chronological number. I believe we are all as young as we truly feel and act. I also believe that if we all try to live a healthy, balanced, active and reasonably stress free life, there is no reason we need to succumb to the usual ailments that supposedly go together with aging. The woman in the picture below is a perfect example of this. This is Ernestine Shepard and she is 74 years old! Can you believe that?! I bet when you think of a 74 year old woman, that is not the body that comes to mind. When I saw her all I could say was daaamn! I would love to look that great at 74! Hehe!

If you are interested in her story, you can see more in this youtube video. I know you will be as inspired by her as I was!

That's all for today! Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Yikes!

2011-06-08T03:30:00.002-04:00

I am so close to giving up on making one layer cards! LOL! I swear after I finish the first layer, you would literally have to handcuff me with my hands behind my back to keep me from adding another layer! Take this card for instance, it was supposed to be a one layer card but I just had to go add those butterflies! LOL!

As you can see this card is pretty simple. I embossed the right edge with the Stampin up "Flower Garden" folder and added two different sentiments. The one at the top is from the Stampin up "Wonderful Words" set and the one at the bottom is from the Stampin up "Hard to Say" set. The last thing I did was add the butterflies which were made with punches. That's all there was to this one!

An Award:

I recently received this wonderful "A Thing of Beauty" award from my talented friend Kathy over at Lucky Stamper. Now speaking of one layer cards, she is the queen! Thank you Kathy, not just for this award, but for all the inspiration you provide. OK, so now I need to share five things about myself with the first one being craft related:

(1) Last year I tried to teach myself to knit using a knitting DVD I purchased. It didn't work! I was so confused, even after watching it several times. So I ditched my knitting needles and decided to just stick with Crocheting!

(2) I've already chosen my theme word for 2012 and it's "Adventure"!

(3) My theme for this current year is "Back to Basics": De-clutter, get rid of outstanding debt and become more self disciplined especially when it comes to shopping.

(4) I like spicy food, the hotter the better!

(5) I can't sleep during the day unless I am sick. So you could just imagine my conversations with my mother last week! LOL!

Mom: "Hi honey what are you doing?"

Me: "I'm in bed, lying down"

Mom: OMG, what's wrong with you???

Me: What do you mean?

Mom: It's the middle of the day and you are in bed?! That's just not YOU!!! OMG something is wrong I know it!!!

Now I need to pass this award on to five people. Here ya go!

(1) Gaynor over at Glitter Bug

(2) Jacqui over at PepPop's Crafty Place

(3) Sue over at Sue's Stamping stuff

(4) Lisa over at Lisa's Craft Room

(5) Lisa over at Handmade Creations by Lisa

That's it for today! As always thanks you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Coming Full Circle...

2011-06-07T03:30:00.008-04:00

Whoo-hoo, Happy Anniversary to me! And yes, those are both pictures of me in that photo above. The picture in the orange dress was taken in May of 2010 and the other picture was taken about a month ago. A year ago today, I started the journey that would change the rest of my life. I am not good with dates, but this is one anniversary I will never forget. Last year, on June 6th, over on my photography blog, I did a post titled "My Last Meal". It was not really my last meal. Hehe! But it was definitely the last time I planned on eating that way again. Before completely banishing those foods from my palette, I decided to go one last round.

For the entire week leading up to June 6th, I was going to eat everything I craved, enjoy them as if it was my last day on this planet and then when the clock struck midnight on Sunday, June 6th, I would turn away and say goodbye to that life of excess and hello to one with more control. You better believe I ate right up until midnight too! LOL! In that post I shared some pictures of the items I ate that week. Pictures like the one that appears below.

Funny how the sight of this used to make me salivate, now it fills me with fear! Instead of associating foods like this with pleasure and comfort I now associate them with loss of control, jeans that don't fit and depression! Nothing is ever gonna taste good enough for me to put up with that again! LOL! With that in mind, I came up with this scrapbook page. I am going to print a small version and place it on my fridge. LOL!

I took the large picture on the left page last year on June 1st. It was all in preparation for documenting this weight loss journey that would take me from there to here. I wanted to capture my shocked expression, after jumping on the scale and realizing things had gone too far. Back then I used to work out to "Not Afraid" by Eminem. The lyrics just resonated strongly with me and really kept me motivated and focused on getting out of that rut I had found myself in. And so I decided to place some of the lyrics from that song on that page as well. A lot of what helped me get to where I am today is visualization and that is where those burning pictures at the bottom of that page come in. I would visualize the images of myself that caused me pain and imagine them going up in flames and I would visualize myself the way I wanted to be.

On the page on the right I added some Polaroids that I made with this neat software I downloaded for free from this website. It's super easy to use and so neat to watch it in action! LOL! Once it is installed on your computer, you will see a little Polaroid camera on your desktop and all you have to do is drag and drop your pictures unto the camera to make Polaroid copies of them.

Well that is all I have for today! Thanks for visiting and remember you do not need a new year to make a new start!

I'm back!

2011-06-06T03:30:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone! Thank you for all the well wishes you sent my way last week. I am doing much better. As you may know, I had a high fever and trouble eating, especially swallowing. Hubby took me to two doctors. The first one did nothing but run tests and send me home. The second one was a lot more knowledgeable and patient oriented. I walked away feeling like she really cared about me. All my test results came back normal but since she still could not explain the continuous high fever etc., she decided to put me on antibiotics. That was all I needed and it worked! After three days on the antibiotics my fever was completely gone. It feels so good to be back to normal again.

Today, I am sharing a thank you card. I used papers from My Mind's Eye and Anna Griffin. I also used two sentiments. The verse is from the Stampin up "Versatile Verses" set and the "Thank you" is from The Paper Studio "Greetings" clear stamp set. The flourish at the bottom of the sentiment is from the Stampin up "Friendship Blooms set.

The large letter "Y" is a die cut made with the Quickutz "Stardust" Cookie Cutter set. I added faux stitching with my ziz zag clear stamp. On the inside I used stamps from the Stampin Up "Heartfelt Thanks" set and some of the leftover scrap DP.

Before I go, I wanted to share this beautiful get well card I received from Kathy over at Lucky Stamper. It just made my day. Thanks Kathy!

Well that's it for today! Have a great one and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Without your health...

2011-05-29T19:38:00.000-04:00

... you have nothing! These words really hit home this past week. You may have noticed my absence most of last week. Well, it was not intentional. Since last Monday night I have been in bed with a high fever, cold chills, sweats and generalized weakness. I did not see a doctor until Thursday because doctors never really do anything for me other than take my money and send me home to take over-the-counter medication, so I figured what was the point.

However, by Wednesday night my fever was approaching 104 and I was getting even worse so I relented and agreed to see the doctor the following morning. Things went just as I expected. They ran a whole bunch of tests, told me I was dehydrated with a fever, and sent me home to continue taking ibuprofen. The doctor also told me that had I stayed in bed a couple of more days, my symptoms would have resolved themselves on their own. Yeah doc, they would have resolved themselves alright, because I would be dead!

OMG, although I was not surprised, I seriously did not think they would send me home with nothing. So I told my husband and mother that I was right and justified in not wanting to see a doctor. But for all my fighting words, I needed a doctor because I was getting worse with every passing day. Yesterday morning I agreed to see my mom's physician and went through the steps again with tests and blood work etc. But at least this time they prescribed medication and it does seem to be helping. It's just a baby step, I am certainly not even ready to get up and run 2 feet. In fact it has taken me the better part of two hours to type this post but I just wanted you all to know why I have been scarce. Oh and thank you Kathy B for checking up on me. I hope my e-mails made sense. When I couldn't focus anymore I just hit "send". I am going to spend the next couple of days in bed resting up and trying to regain my energy. See everyone in a couple of days! Until then, Happy Crafting and enjoy your Memorial Day holiday.

Caught up in the Rapture!

2011-05-23T03:30:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was actually quite productive. We had a huge garage sale on Saturday. Guess you could call it our "Doomsday" garage sale. LOL! Gee that was a lot of work! Towards the end of the sale I figured I would take the opportunity to clean the garage. I opened a couple of the cabinets out there, ones that have not been opened in years, only to discover exploded paint cans and chemicals. I was not really surprised as it gets to over 100 degrees out there during the summer. I did wear gloves but should have also worn a mask because inhaling the dust from those chemicals got me sick to the point that I found myself in bed, wrapped in the fetal position with a 101.7 degree temperature. It was awful!

I am fine now, so no worries. Today I am sharing a birthday card. I am trying to use up some of my craft items that have gone unused for years, so I whipped out my Sizzix Sizzlit "Film Strip" and created the white film frame you see across the center. I stamped various sentiments and images inside the filmstrip. These were done using mainly Studio G stamps, but a couple were made with stamps from the Stampin up "Best yet" and "Celebrate Everything" set.

The main sentiment, at the bottom right, was made with a stamp from The Paper Studio. I masked out the letter "L" and replaced it with a "L" die cut instead. This was made with the Quickutz "Magnolia" Cookie cutter set. A red decorative border was added at the bottom and I used one of my stitches stamps to create a faux attachment to the background image. As a final touch, a couple of balloons and embroidery floss were added. That's it. Well let me hit the gym and then head to work. Thanks for visiting. I am really glad that life here on earth continues and that we are all here today! Not that I ever had a doubt! I'm just sayin'! LOL! Take care everyone and have a wonderful day!

Can't get no satisfaction

2011-05-18T03:32:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well. I am crazy busy this week! But it's all good and I am getting a lot accomplished. I am sitting here trying to type this blog entry, but it's a little difficult to concentrate with a green cheek conure climbing all over me! LOL! Can you believe the temps here have dipped even lower?! We down to the 40's last night and this morning. So yeah, I'm back to wearing sweaters, hehe! Below is a picture of today's card and as you can see I have been experimenting again! Not so sure it worked this time. Sometimes I just get in these moods where I try things different combination of things in the hopes of creating something out of the ordinary.

I wanted to create a card with a letter die cut on it. That was my starting point for this card. The letter I used would of course depend on the sentiment that followed. For this card, I ended up choosing the "thank you" sentiment from the Hampton Arts "Sentiments" clear stamp set pictured below. Then I decided to cut the letter "T", from a piece of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye, using the Quickutz "Diesel" cookie cutter die set. I printed the digi image, from Neare Store, on some kraft card stock and cut some strips of brown card stock to add to the design. In the picture below you could see where my mind was going with this. LOL!

After putting those elements together I was still not satisfied with the way it looked so I added a stamped butterfly above the sentiment. And since the digi image seemed to be floating in space, I thought I would bring it down to earth by stamping vegetation at the bottom of it. The stamp I used for this is from Studio G. The entire panel was matted on brown card stock that was edged with the EK Success "Dotted Scallop" border punch.

Things still did not look right so I went around the edge of the "T" die cut with a black marker to help it stand out a bit more. I also cut a tiny strip of black card stock and placed it under the "ou" in the sentiment. I then used colored pencils to add some color to the flowers. The card still looked like something was missing so I decided to create the look of embossing on the right by punching a bunch of butterflies out of the same kraft card stock and and attaching them.

Finally I looked at this card and thought to myself, "Hmmn, you went too far and have now messed it up!" LOL! However, since I have nothing else to share today and I am too busy to make another card right now, you're stuck with my "card gone wild" project. LOL!

Have a great day everyone! Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

One Card - 7 Stamps!

2011-05-16T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! That was some wild ride Blogger took us on last week huh?! Hope you all had a great weekend. The weather was absolutely beautiful here. We were in the 70's on Saturday and the 60's on Sunday. I actually got out in the back yard on Saturday and did some stuff. Haven't done that in a while. Today I am sharing another Father's Day card. Can you believe I used 7 stamps on this card?

I thought it would be confusing to list the manufacturers so I created the diagram below so you can easily see where each stamp came from.

That's pretty much all there was to it. I was going for a semi, boxy-grunge look so I used a combination of different color card stock and a variety of sentiment stamps. Hope you like it. As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Puppy Love

2011-05-12T03:30:00.004-04:00

It's Thursday and I think I have finally recovered from the carb overload of this past weekend! Gee that was painful! LOL! I should have had hubby take some pictures of me passed out on the couch so I could keep them as a reminder for the next time I think of over indulging at Mom's. I would have been good, but Dad made these coconut buns that were sinfully delicious! I tried to stop at one but they got the better of me. What can I say, I'm only human. LOL! We are all supposed to get together again for Memorial weekend. Hmmmn, not sure I could handle that sort of temptation twice in one month! We'll see!

Today I am sharing a 2010 layout. While scrapbooking this page I realized that this took place place one year ago on Mother's Day. That was the day we met Shadow for the first time. What a cute little butterball he was! I just love puppies and definitely could not get enough of him! LOL! I am sure you have seen that picture of me, at the top right, before. I've used it in another layout that was posted on here. I was about 185-6 lbs in that photo. Not too long after that we went to Florida and when we returned I decided that I had had enough.

The hardest part about scrapbooking these pages was not having dogie embellishments, so the pages looked a bit blah. There was also no cohesion between the two pages. So aside from them both being brown and having pics of Shadow on them, they looked looked like two separate pages. To rectify this I added some grass to the bottom of both pages and added some paw prints at the top that went from one page to another. I also added some brown tape across the top left picture. Since the tape is the same color as the paw prints, it helps the eye to pull the two pages together.

Well that's it for today! Thank you so much for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Dad

2011-05-11T03:30:00.002-04:00

Welcome back everyone! Now that Mother's Day is out of the picture, it's time to start focusing on the dads. Today I am sharing a Father's Day card I made for my dad. I started with the background panel. I created this background using the "Dad Words" background stamp from Stampendous and some brown ink. Then I sponged brown chalk all over the background, going a little heavier on the edges. The sentiment, from Inkadinkado, was then stamped in black against the background.

I wanted to do something special, and a little different, with this card so I drew the outline of a man wearing a shirt and some slacks and then used that as a template to create the pieces you see in the picture below. The handkerchief in his pocket and the tie were made from blue ribbon. This adds a realistic feel to the image. Using Copic markers, I also drew some lines and added shadows to the shirt to give a wrinkled dimensional feel to it.

Here is what it looked like after I finished adding all the details to the clothing. Once I was finished assembling all the pieces, I cut slits in the collar of the shirt, slipped the ribbon under there and tied it in the same manner as you would a real tie.

That's all there was to it! Hope you like it. As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Have you heard???

2011-05-09T03:30:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone! How are you all doing today? Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Did y'all do anything special for Mother's Day? OK, chances are if you are here reading this post, you are most likely a fellow blogger that makes cards to showcase on your individual blogs. Well, did you know that there is someone out there who is stealing the card pictures from our blogs, compiling them on CDs and selling them on eBay? Isn't that just ridiculous? I don't mind if someone downloads a picture from here to keep for inspiration, but to sell that picture for a profit without permission is just outrageous! Here is the link to the person on eBay who is doing this. I found out about this on Friday, so hopefully there have been enough complaints by now for eBay to do something about this. I just thought I would share this information with you, so would be aware of what some people are up to out there. Anyway on to today's card.

This is a simple thank you card that I actually patterned after a scrapbook layout. I used cream card stock for the base and added two green panels to the front of the card. These were embossed with the "Kassie's Brocade" folder from Cuttlebug. I used a corner rounder to edge the top inner corners.

The sentiment at the top is from Hero Arts. I used the "Beaded Oval" nestability die to make the frame in the center of the card and added a sentiment from Hampton Arts.

Here is a look at the inside. I am trying to complete the insides of the cards I make now. Not sure how long I will keep this up though! LOL! The sentiment is from Stampendous and the swirly decorative element is from the Stampin up set called Friendship Blooms".

Well that's all I have for today. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

There's A Chill In The Air!

2011-05-05T03:30:00.009-04:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Woke up to temps in the 40's this morning. It was actually rather pleasant and a nice break from the warmer weather we have been experiencing. Before getting to today's card, I wanted to say a special thank you to those of you who leave me such heartfelt comments on my scrapbook pages or have sent me truly touching e-mails. It really means a lot to me that you like and/or feel motivated by them and I truly appreciate all the support you have shown me. I am really happy to be scrapbooking again because unlike any other hobby I've done, this really helps me to look inwards and understand myself better. It seems like I learn something new about myself with every page. So thank you for allowing me to share some of those moments with you. Today, I have another Mother's Day card to share!

I still have not put away my Stampin up "Haute Couture" set so I decided to use the face stamp again. That's the image you see on the left. I stamped the image on the inside of the card, colored it with Copic markers and did some light chalking. A white panel was added to the front of the card. This was edged on three sides with the Martha Stewart "Wild Flowers" deep edge punch. I then embossed the center with the Cuttlebug "Grace's Frame" folder. A circle was cut to create a window to the image on the inside of the card. I framed the circle with a stamp from the Stampin up "So Much" set and added some red ribbon to the side. The sentiment, which is from Inkadinkado, was placed over to the left.

Here is a look at the inside. I used the same sentiment, from Paper Inspirations, that I used on my previous Mother's Day card. This time I added some decorative elements in the form of some Sizzix bracket die cuts and some swirly stamps.

Hope you like today's card. As always thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Magic in Believing...

2011-05-03T03:30:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone and welcome to another scrapbook page day. Today I am sharing one of the layouts I did this past weekend. I did quite a bit of scrapbooking this weekend. Just about all of the pages were of my garage activities though. I wanted to get them scrapbooked, as they were recent occurrences and the memories and feelings, associated with each day, are still pretty fresh in my mind. This makes the journaling portion easier as I don't have to sit there trying to remember what I was thinking or feeling that day. LOL!

I have added a floor routine to my garage regimen and it is not easy. It takes everything in me to complete each set. At the end of each set my muscles are on fire. They feel as if someone cut open my arms, stomach and thighs and rubbed habanero pepper all over the inside! Hehe! So I usually have to sit there and rest a while to let the burning sensation diminish a bit before going at it again. It was during one of my resting phases that I took the two black and white pictures you see on both ends of the layout. I thought some white text would look great against the black portion of the photo. Two pieces of wordart from Elegant Wordart were used for this purpose. Both these sentiments accurately sum up the thoughts that run through my head while I am sitting there grimacing in pain. LOL!

Oh, I also wanted to show you how I set up my garage for my workout sessions in there. Fortunately I did not have to buy anything new as this was all stuff I already had but was not using. Whenever I am ready to use the garage for this purpose, I simply park hubby's SUV in the driveway and set up the area where his car is usually parked just as you see in the picture below. The multi-color mat you see on the floor was actually designed for kids' playrooms so that they don't mess up the floor. I only use this when I am actually going to be on the ground doing floor exercises.

I love that this mat fits together like a puzzle so when I am done, I simply break up the puzzle mat and lean it against the wall. You can see some extra pieces, at the side of the red framed mirror, leaning against the wall. When I am finished, all the weights etc. get packed behind the mirrors and I take my CD player with me into the house. Oh, and I bring hubby's vehicle back in! LOL! It's a pretty neat set-up and works for me.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Is It May Already?

2011-05-02T03:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! Hope all of you had a great weekend! I am just amazed by how fast this year is going by! Do you realize that next month we will be halfway through 2011? Isn't that wild?! I have a big anniversary coming up next month! Uh-huh, June 7th of 2010 is the day I made my "lifestyle" change. The day I decided to become a healthier and happier person. I am still working on the happier part! LOL! All kidding aside, that date will forever stay with me. I often forget the date of my wedding anniversary but I could never forget the date I started the journey back to me! It is so wonderful to feel alive again. I was just telling hubby that I need to do something special on that day to celebrate. I don't want it to be food related though, so no restaurants! Hehe. I will have to think of something fun. Anyway, today I am sharing the Mother's day card I plan to give to my Mom on Sunday!

Since I already had the Stampin up "Haute Couture" set out for the previous card I made, I decided to use the dress image from that set on this card. The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations and I framed them both with the "Framed Tulips" embossing folder from Stampin up. Kathy, this is another one of those cards that I had every intention of making as a "one layer" card and ended up adding a layer in the end. One of these days I am going to force myself to make one layer cards! The border at the side was created with the Stampin up "Eyelet" punch.

Here is a peek inside the card. I used the same patterned paper from the dress to create a border on the inside right and added the sentiment from Hero Arts. That's all there was to it! Putting this card together took about 15 minutes.

Well that's all I have for today! Here's wishing everyone a wonderful Monday and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Weaker Sex???

2011-04-29T03:30:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone. What a week this has been, especially for us here in the south! My heart goes out to all of those who were affected by the recent storms and tornadoes. I just can't believe the devastation. For a couple of hours we sat glued to the TV as the forecast had indicated it was heading towards us. I will never forget that feeling of utter helplessness as we watched imminent destruction move closer. I kept praying that our area would be spared but felt guilty even doing that. Couldn't post anything yesterday as we lost our internet connection. Got it back last night so today I am sharing a fun scrapbook page that I had intended to post yesterday.

Every now and then, I like to lift hubby unto my back and walk around the kitchen with him, while he screams for fear that I will drop him. The other day I got to thinking that this would be neat to put in a scrapbook, so we went outside and took the pictures you see in the page on the left.

I challenged my friend Hilary to do the same with her husband. Knowing that she is super fit and strong, I figured she would try to show me up by going one step further and lift Paul with just one hand, or something crazy like that. LOL! Even though she said she didn't think she could do that, somehow I figured she was gonna find a way! Hehe! And I was right!

The pictures of Hilary and Paul are on the right. In the picture at the bottom of that page, she is holding him in a fireman's carry. From the way she looks in that picture , you would swear he only weighed 10 lbs. LOL! Roberto took one look at that picture and said "You're NOT doing that to me! You are not as strong as her!" Hmph, why does he assume I am not as strong as her? And how dare he underestimate my strength! Hehe! But in all honesty he is probably right. But now I feel challenged, so one of these days I will post a picture on here of me holding Roberto in a fireman's carry! Just wait and see! LOL!

Well that's it for today. Hope you at least got a chuckle out of these pages. Have a wonderful weekend and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Best Mom!

2011-04-27T03:30:00.001-04:00

Are you all bracing yourselves for the bad weather we are supposed to have later today? I am so tired of all these storms! I'm a bit nervous though about the one that is supposedly going to hit us later tonight. The weather forecast describes it as "intense with vivid lightning, hail and possible tornadoes." That does not sound good at all. The other night, well actually it was about 2:30 in the morning, within a fraction of a second, I went from sleeping soundly to sitting straight up in the bed, when I heard what must have been the loudest clap of thunder. So if I go missing tomorrow, it may be because our router or network card got fried yet again, due the weather! This time I think I will unplug all the computer equipment before the storm gets here to save myself the possible expense of having to replace them. Today I am sharing a Mother's Day card since that day is quickly approaching.

It's super easy to make. Took me all of 10 minutes! The image is from the Stampin up set called "Haute Couture" and the sentiment is from Inkadinkado. The image and sentiment are enclosed by an embossed frame that was created with the Cuttlebug "Grace's Frame" folder. I used the "Morocco Lace" border punch from EK Success to decorate the bottom edge of the light pink card stock. Some ribbon was then added to complete the card. That's it! Have a great day everyone. Please be careful and safe if you are in the path of these terrible storms. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Snowfall 2010

2011-04-26T03:30:00.002-04:00

Today I'm back with a scrapbook page. This one is about the snow we had last year. I don't know what I did with all the snow pictures I took but these were the only ones I could find on my computer. No worries, it made the process of putting these two pages together much easier. LOL! If I find them before the pages are sent to print, I will create some additional snow pages. If not these will have to do. After a couple of years, all these snow pictures begin to look the same anyway since I pretty much take them in the same place. LOL!

I always like to throw in a scarf with my snow layouts as it makes them look that much colder! After uploading this layout to the blog, I noticed the words are a bit too close to the image on the left so I will re-do the page and push them down a bit before printing. Hmph, funny how I did not see that while I was working on it! Oh well, That's all I have for today! Have a great day everyone and until next time, Happy crafting!

Conspiracy Theory...

2011-04-25T03:30:00.015-04:00

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was pretty nice and quiet here. Hey, I discovered something pretty interesting this weekend! My husband is a big gamer and one of the games he likes to play is a card game called Illuminati. It's the same game in the picture above. This game first came out in 1987 and in 1995 they produced an expansion pack called "Illuminati - New World Order". Well get this, there are cards in this expansion pack from 1995 that clearly predict the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that would take place six years later in 2001! Isn't that just creepy?! There are also cards in there that predict the Japan earthquake and some other events still yet to come. On March 1st, 1990, Secret Service agents raided the offices of the game's creator, Steve Jackson and seized computers and other information regarding the Illuminati game. Hmmmmn, makes you wonder doesn't it? Here are pictures of some of the cards in the game. You know me, once my curiosity was peaked, I had to find out more. LOL! The stuff I started reading gave me chills! If you are interested you can get more information on this website.

OK, on to today's card. I should have re-shot this picture because it really does not do this card justice. It's made entirely from pieces of leftover scrap paper. It's a friendship card I was experimenting with and wanted to combine different colors, patterns and rectangle sizes to create a "scrap" card.

The sentiment at the bottom, as well as the words on the white card stock, were both made with rubber stamps from Hero Arts. The sentiment on the green card stock is from Kolette Hall. That's pretty much it. Thank you for visiting, have a great day and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Today's Agenda - Get through it!

2011-04-22T03:30:00.032-04:00

Happy Friday to one and all! Today's post is going to be a short one. I am a little burnt out on scrapbooking trains, so I took a break from that and decided to finish the double-page spread below, that I had started a few weeks ago.

Yeah, this is another one of my garage workout days. I think this was actually my second time working out in the garage. It's nothing really special, just a bunch of sweaty pictures spread out over some patterned paper. LOL! You are probably getting tired of seeing these workout layouts. I can hear the faint shouts "Enough Already!" LOL! Hey, I'll try to spread them out so that they are not back to back. This did save me from having to fool with arranging trains last night though! Hehe!

Well I did promise that this post was gonna be short so I am outta here! Have a super fantastic weekend. Hope the weather is just perfect wherever you are. As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Oh Boy...

2011-04-21T03:30:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone! It's with a heavy heart that I share this card. I made it for an ex-coworker of mine who was expecting a little baby boy this month. I figured I would send this to her, after the baby was born, to celebrate his arrival. Unfortunately, I got a text message from her a couple of days ago letting me know that the baby had died. I was in shock. I just can't imagine carrying a child for nine months and then losing him. I feel really bad for her and for what she must be going through.

The adorable little baby on this card is a digi file from Sugar Nellie called "Bambino." Since the parents are both Nigerian, I colored the baby with dark skin tones. This was a challenge as I had never colored very dark skin tones before. Hopefully it turned out OK. The larger sentiment is from Studio G and the small "welcome" at the bottom is from the Stampin up set "Short and Sweet".

I cut out and framed the image and sentiments using the Spellbinders "Labels Ten" dies and added a little yellow chalking around the edges. I just love the patterned paper that I used on this card. It is from Paper Pizzaz. As a final touch, I added some faux safety pins to the four corners of the label. These were made with the Martha Stewart "Saftey Pin" punch. Well that's it. Unfortunately I will not be mailing this card but thought I would share it anyway.

Hope you all have a terrific day. Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Superb

2011-04-20T03:30:00.161-04:00

Hi everyone, hope you are all doing well. Today I am sharing another double page scrapbook spread. This one is a follow-up to the spread I shared on Monday about my visit to the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, Georgia.

The pictures on these pages were taken inside the private car of one of the trains, known as the Superb. The Superb is a steel rail car built in March, 1911. It holds a place in history as the second oldest steel private car in existence and is the only existing rail car to carry the casket of a sitting president in a funeral train. I'll tell ya, being inside this train was an experience! Aside from the 100 plus degree temperature, the musty smell, sweat pouring from my forehead and dying of thirst, being in there wasn't all bad. It did give me a glimpse of what life must have been like back in the 1920's. Had the temperature only been cooler I would have thoroughly enjoyed my visit.

From these pictures you could see the riding area, sleeping quarters, toilet, kitchen and the sitting room of President Harding. You probably can't tell from these pictures but these were all very cramped, close quarters. But even so, it was certainly evident that we were standing in 1920's luxury. My mind drifted and I pictured what it must have been like to travel on this train back then.

Two of our presidents traveled on this particular train. Woodrow Wilson did on occasion and so did Warren Harding during the last days of his presidency. Also, as I mentioned in Monday's post, President Harding's deceased body was also transported on this train back in 1923.

While putting together this scrapbook page, I couldn't help but do a little research. I wanted to see if there were any pictures of this train back in the day. I found this one that was taken in June of 1923, as President Harding was departing Washington, DC.

And there was also this one in which his body was being taken back to Washington, DC from California where he died on August 2nd.

Well that's it for today. I still have one more train museum double-page to complete. I will probably work on that this weekend and share it with you next week. Hope you all have a great day! Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Photo credits:

1st black and white image - Campbell Editorial

2nd black and white image - The Archive Attic

A Bird's-Eye View

2011-04-19T03:30:00.004-04:00

Hello and welcome back! Today I have a birthday card to share with you. The main image is a beautiful "Kingfisher" digi file from The Sketching Stamper. I pretended he was a humming bird and colored him like one. LOL! I used Copic markers and added a little "Frosted Lace" stickles to his throat/upper-breast.

Two sentiment stamps were used. The one at the top is from Hampton Arts and the one at the bottom is from the Stampin up "Wonderful Words" set. They were stamped on a piece of cream card stock which was then chalked around the edges with brown and yellow chalk. For the background I used the left over "Making Memories" paper from my Sicky Pooh card. That's all there was to it. A pretty simple card! Gotta run! As always, thank you for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The Southeastern Railway Museum

2011-04-18T03:12:00.009-04:00

Hi everyone! It's Monday once again. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The weekends go by way too fast, don't they? Mine started with a big bang Friday night! That was when all that bad weather hit us. Thankfully there were no tornadoes where we live, but we did get heavy rain and hail. This type of weather always scares me, especially lately as the bad weather seems to be getting more intense and destructive.

On Saturday night, we went to the movies to see "Hanna". It was OK. All I will say is that it started better than it ended. LOL! I seriously doubt I will be going to the movies again anytime in the near future, especially with hubby! He likes complete silence when he watches a movie and the sounds of rustling bags and the constant crunching of popcorn and potato chips drives him crazy. Me, I just tune it all out! Needless to say, there was a lot of crunching and rustling of bags Saturday night and as if that was not enough, a bunch of teenagers near us decided to chat aloud throughout the movie.

I could tell hubby was getting pissed off and that made me nervous. I do not like confrontation of any kind so I whispered to him that we should leave as he is obviously was not enjoying the movie. He decided instead to politely (but firmly) tell the teenagers to lower their voices and to my surprise they did. Of course that was the best scenario, but in my mind I had imagined the worst. So I figured that instead of paying $11 to go see a movie surrounded by a bunch of inconsiderate people, it may be better to just rent it on DVD later, for much less, and watch it in the comfort of our own home.

Today I am sharing a scrapbook page from my 2010 album. This is the introductory layout to our railway museum visit. It's nothing really special. The most interesting part is the breakthrough paper on the left page. In that particular shot, I had used the "Zoom Burst" method to make the trains look like they were moving fast, so I decided to place it at the center of the breakthrough paper so it would appear as if the trains burst through the paper as they were moving.

I am currently working on the remaining railway museum pages. They will have more detailed pictures of the interior of some of the trains, including the private car once used by President Warren G. Harding, during his trip to the West Coast. During his visit, he suddenly died and his was body was returned to Washington D.C. on this same car. It was really neat being in there and taking a journey back in history. However the 100 plus degree temps we endured that day made it impossible for us to truly enjoy ourselves.

Well that is it for today. Have a great week. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

A Brighter Day...

2011-04-15T03:30:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday morning to ya! No sad scrapbooking pages today. Hehe! Instead I am sharing this thank you card I made recently. I challenged myself to try a number of different things on this card and at first was not sure I liked it but it has grown on me.

The main image is called "Dragonfly" and it is from The Sketching Stamper. I colored the image with Copic markers and applied Stickles to the wings of the Dragonfly. I them embossed a piece of white card stock using the "Grace's Frame" folder from Cuttlebug. The raised portion was highlighted with a black Copic marker. I stamped the sentiment at the top with stamps from two different Stampin up sets. They were "Absolutely Fabulous" and "Small Sayings".

Next I tried to create a sunset scene inside the embossed frame using stamps from the Tim Holtz "Nature's Elements" set. This is part of his "Visual Artistry" collection. I stamped these with brown ink then sponged over the background with yellow and orange ink.

To complete the card I created a sentiment border around the edge of the base card stock using one of the stamps from the Stampin up "Short and Sweet" set. That's pretty much it. I think I covered everything. Have a super fabulous weekend everyone! Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

The memories still remain...

2011-04-14T03:31:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone. This post is going to be a short one. Today I am sharing a scrapbook page I completed last night. As some of you may remember, one of my pet birds died last week so in the spirit of scrapbooking the events of 2011, I decided to create this spread in her memory. This was hard, mainly because I was crying and scrapping at the same time. Ugh, I hate doing things that make me sad but it had to be done.

I am just grateful that I am the type of person who loves to take tons of pictures. As a result, I have lots of beautiful images to supplement my memories of her. Well that's it for today. Just wanted to share this scrapbook page of my little Noelle. Have a wonderful day everyone. Thanks for visiting and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Getting a late start today...

2011-04-13T12:21:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I missed you all yesterday. I tried, but by the time I got home I had no energy for blogging! LOL! I got as far as turning on the computer but like I told my husband, I felt as if I had been beaten with a tree trunk so I ended up just hitting the sack early. I have been very busy the past two days, but it was a good kinda busy! Hehe! Today I wanted to share with you a card I made for Easter, which I just noticed will be here in a little over a week! Is this year flying fast or what? Gee, I wish it would slow down a bit! LOL!

The beautiful cross in the center is a freebie from Sandy Allnock and is called "Easter Cross". I colored it with Copic markers and then heat embossed the red bow with some "Red Dragon" embossing powder from Stampendous. I used two Cuttlebug embossing folders on this card. The cross was framed with the "Grace's Frame" embossing folder and the panel behind this was embossed with the "Kassie's Brocade" folder, which is one of my favorites.

The sentiment is from Paper Inspirations and it was stamped at the center of an ornate tag that was made with a die from the Spellbinders "Fancy Tags" die set. That's pretty much it! Well I gotta go see what missed in blogland yesterday. Have a great day everyone and until next time, Happy Crafting!

You go girl!

2011-04-11T03:03:00.002-04:00

Welcome back everyone! Hope y'all had a great weekend. Mine was fabulous. I can't wait to get to the gym in a few hours to test out my new running shoes. I guess I finally wore out my old ones because they started really hurting my toes. It got to the point where I simply couldn't wear them anymore. I did not want to spend a lot of money so I bought a cheap $39 replacement, but it just was not working out. I did tell the guy in the store that I wanted a "running" shoe and he assured me that it was, even though there was nothing stating that on the box. It felt comfortable but when I started running in those things, the front sole of my feet would go numb and my toes would hurt.

Even though the shoes were the correct size with lots of room, I figured that for running I probably needed a larger size. So again, being cheap, I went to Wally World and got me a $25 pair of Dr. Scholls athletic shoes in a size larger than I normally wear. Big mistake! There was no running in those things. All I could do was walk and even so it felt like I was walking on pieces of wood. I was talking about my aching feet at dinner on Saturday night and my father and brother suggested I get a Nike Air Max. So after dinner we rushed off to Sports Authority, where I was happy to see a section with just running shoes and they were labeled "running shoes"! LOL! I tried on a Nike Women's Dual Fusion ST and OMG, what a difference! This felt like nothing I had worn before. My feet were in heaven! My only regret was not buying these first!

Today I am sharing a workout related card. I saw this adorable fitness digi over at Digis With Attitude. She is simply called "Workout". I colored her with Copics, cut her out and attached her to the card. The black and white patterned paper is from Colorbok. The stitching at the edge of the white panel is from the Hot Off The Press "Stamped Stitches" set and the sentiment is computer generated and printed.

Here is a look at the inside. Yeah, this is me trying to be funny with the sentiment! Hehe!

Well that is it for today. Thank you for stopping by and have an amazing week!