I've been busy working and playing.  I went to a sewing weekend with my mom, aunt, and cousin last weekend.  We giggled and sewed and ate and visited for two days.  Then when we came home, my cousin stayed with me for two nights and we crafted and giggled and visited and ate some more.  I don't know that we accomplished tons, but we had lots of girl time fun.  I spend so much time on the computer lately, that I haven't crafted much.  It was wonderful to just play and get messy and create.  Then, yesterday I went to a scrapbook expo with a couple of my stamping friends and played all day looking at all the goodies and make and takes.  We even stopped at In and Out Burger for lunch.  What a treat!  Hubby and I went to see the movie Red (funny with action, good date movie) this afternoon while the kiddo went to a Halloween party dressed in a toga.  I'm afraid he's already looking ahead to fraternity parties.  Curtis is happy about that, hoping for a legacy :)

I made this little card as a thank you for the Fiskateers who took on a blind color challenge last week.  Take a peek at this video if you'd like to see the amazing things they created.  

Thank You Card Supplies Used:  Cupcake Squeeze Punch, Paper Crimper, In Stitches Border Punch, Postage Stamp Border Punch, Latte Love Stamps, Swirls of Fun Stamps, Colorbok Paper, Ranger Distress Ink, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder and Die Cut Awareness Ribbon, orange tulle, cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by today!

How about a new video tutorial?  We recently indulged in slightly used HD video camera and updated our imovie software.  This is the first of a new crop of videos.  I'm so happy that I can finally produce videos like a dreamed about in the beginning.  If you don't want music turn down the volume before you click on it.

Thanks for stopping by today!

We're running away for a few days of fun in the sun to finish off our spring break in style.  This little cutie is the luggage tag I made a while back.  So happy I get to use it.  See ya next week!

Just a silly card for you today.  It's been a rough winter here and I'm thinking this sentiment could apply to any of us by now.  We got a tiny little nothing storm last night according to the weather guessing people.  Well, it looks like a danged winter wonderland this morning.  Probably a foot of new white stuff on the ground.  I really want more sand in my life not more snow.  The good news is hubby and I ran away to orange county on Friday to have our taxes done and I made him take me to the ocean so I could drink it all in to sustain me through the rest of the winter. We even had lunch right on the pier at Dukes.  I don't think we stayed long enough.

Thank you for all the well wishes on round 2 of the Graphic 45 design team application. I'm over the moon excited.  The kitchen table is covered with paper and bits and baubles for my final project.  I had it planned out, but was afraid to jinx myself by starting on it early. I'm planning to crank up the music while I'm cutting and gluing and basically making a happy mess.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Supplies: Graphic 45 Patterned Paper, Club Scrap Image Stamp, Hampton Art Sentiment Stamp, Mango Lemonade Memories Mist, Versafine Ink, Postage Stamp, Brads.

I've been playing around with ideas for upcoming classes.  The last classes I did were tag books and were so much fun that I want to go there again in a new way.  This is the naked uninked version of what I want to use for the new classes.  Just about everything you see here is a vintage find from my large stash or goodies.  I actually have enough to sell extra kits this time.  I'll list them here first if I have any leftover from the classes.  The next class I'm scheduling will be a spray ink class, I'm just waiting for confirmation on the date. Can you imagine this little book all sprayed up and sparkly or would you rather see it distressed and grungy?  Maybe a combo of the two.  I'm excited about teaching this one.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Just a bit of grungy fun.  All the stamps are by Paper Bag Studios.  I really love their stamps. The paper is an old ledger sheet and the inks are distress. I used a Fiskars metal edge tearing tool for that tear on the left side.  I like how jagged it makes the tear.  The button and twill tape are out of my stash, not sure where they came from.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Hearts Day

This is the card I made for my sweetie.  You may recognize a few goodies from my treasure hunting trip a few posts back.  The old label, bingo card piece, and bingo marker are from that trip. The flower is made with a scallop circle punch and old sewing pattern directions.  I really posted this to tell you a love story, not go on and on about the card.

Nine years ago today, I met my sweet husband at El Pollo Loco for lunch.  I was working full time days and he was working full time nights so we could care for our son who was in kindergarten.  Meeting for a quick fast food lunch was a treat for us.  We met half way down the mountain most nights to switch off  the kiddo as I was coming home and he was going to work.  After doing this for 5 years, we barely saw each other.  We both felt like single parents.  I was burnt out from 12 years of social work and keeping up this crazy schedule.  I'd worked my whole adult life, gone to school, and this was my chosen profession.  The thing is it no longer worked and it no longer fit me.  Something had to give, but I didn't see it.  My sweet husband has a way of seeing what I need before I see it.  While we were eating our hurried lunch and wishing each other a happy valentine's day, he gave me a gift.  It was unexpected and intangible.  I was lamenting about the latest drama at work, and he said, "why don't you quit".  I laughed and he said he was serious.  You see up until that day, I never even imagined it as an option.  We began to ponder the idea. The more we talked about it, the more excited I became.  I sat down with our finances that night and figured out that it was possible.  It would be a huge lifestyle change, but it was possible.  We put the wheels in motion and 6 weeks later I became a stay at home mom who cooked dinner and helped in the classroom and drove her son to school, and began having a life I never knew I wanted or needed.

Over the last nine years many things have happened that wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't had that lovely fast food lunch that day.  I've been substitute teaching since about 6 months after I left my full time job.  I was able to homeschool Kyle for 2 years to help him through some learning disabilities that had gone undetected earlier.  I've been able to pursue my passion with crafting in ways I never imagined.  Mostly, though, I found my marriage.  I fell in love with my husband all over again.  Our family is stronger and I wouldn't trade one day of it for a fancy dinner out or a shopping trip to Nordstrom with a personal shopper.  Those things are fleeting pleasures.  This life gives me enduring love and contentment beyond my wildest dreams.  Happy Valentine's Day.

inspiration

Inspiration is a tricky thing.  Sometimes I really want to make something and there's no inspiration.  Other times, like today, I should be doing important things like shoveling snow, again.  Then, bam, the inspiration hits.  As much as I'd like to be out there shoveling the fresh berm of snow the snowplow so kindly left for me, I ran to the craft room instead. 

This is a piece of palette paper left over from our adventure in making a color wheel this week.  Kyle is still sick, so we've been doing a bit of homeschool to make sure he keeps up.  High school is much harder than I recall, especially algebra.  It definitely got harder in the last 30 years.  His lovely art teacher offered that he could make a color wheel using just the primary colors with black and white.  I loved showing Kyle about how to make darker and lighter hues with the black and white.  When he was finished with the color wheel, there was still some paint left on the palette.  I used a palette knife and smeared it all over a piece of acrylic paper for backgrounds for something else, and left this palette paper to dry.  Today when I was picking up the dry pieces, I saw flowers in this piece of throw away palette.  So I made these:

I used an EK success 5 petal flower punch to punch out areas of the waxy palette paper and then curled up the leaves a bit.  I stacked up 3 flowers and used a brad in the middle.  I think they're kind of fun.  I love trash to treasure projects.  Thanks for stopping by today.

I painted today!  I love painting.  Do you recognize the base for this ATC?  It's one of the vintage bingo cards from a couple of posts down that I picked up on my treasure hunting.  Ok, so it's not tons of paint, but it really made me happy.  A bit of titan buff with some glazing liquid gave me just the right amount of milky white to still see what's underneath. The little frame around the bingo babe is made with microbeads sprinkled over a line of glossy accents.  Did I mention that I painted today?  It was a good day.  Thanks for stopping by.  

Here's a little trash to treasure project I made with more of those fun Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess papers.  This check file is vintage, but was still new in the package at the thrift store where I found it.  It was originally a cancelled check file, but who gets those anymore?  I covered it with some modge podge and all the pretty papers and transformed it into a receipt file. I figure that when I get to the next year's receipts I can probably toss them and add the new ones.  I keep this in my in a basket in the kitchen that gets all the mail and stray papers around the house.  I try to go through it once a week to file everything and this makes the receipts easy to manage.  Here's the link to the class I did for SNR Magazine for this project:  http://www.scrapbooknewsandreview.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=369&func=view&catid=165&id=22362 (why can't I get the link thing to work on blogger?...it's driving me batty)

I'm feeling better today and even got together with the stamping girls this morning for some inky fun.  Thanks so much for all the get well wishes.  I'm determined to make 2010 a healthy creative year.

Happy New Year! I hope 2010 is good to you. I have hope that this will be a beautiful year. The only resolution I made today is to add more yoga into my life. That's a resolution I can keep. Are you adding something into your life for the new decade? I'd love to hear about it.
We rang in the new year quietly at home with some yummy chicken piccata and a fun game of Apples to Apples. We had a wonderful getaway between the holidays to Coronado and I got to luxuriate at the spa while the guys went out deep sea fishing. I could get used to that.
These are a couple of cards I made using Graphic 45 papers for an event at SNR Magazine this fall. I absolutely fell in love with this company about a year ago and they continue to make beautiful things. I added in some vintage lingerie hardware, an old button card, and a piece of measuring tape into the designs. These papers are perfect for adding in some vintage pieces. Thanks for stopping by today.

These are some projects I made for SNR early in the summer for a kit club review of Mosh Posh. This kit reminded me of Grandma's kitchen, so I had to make a recipe book with it. Love the cherries and bright colors in this.

I know today is a somber day of remembrance, but it's also a day to celebrate our resilience. We are still flying the flag and living our lives free from fear eight years after that devastating day. Thank you to each and every person working to protect our freedom.

patriotic again

I was so inspired by all the patriotic cards in the blog hop, that I just had to make one. I actually made this for the Cuttlebug Challenge blog, but darn it all, I missed the deadline. It just seems time gets away from me so quickly. I wanted to share it anyhow. I used an old twist tie in the middle of that Jenni Bowlin button. It was holding together some vintage lace in my stash, no telling how long it's been around.

Lots of fun planned for the weekend ahead. Hot date night with my cutie hubby tonight to listen to live music with a picnic dinner. I'm teaching a free online class Saturday at SNR.Then, I'm teaching a real life class in Escondido. After that we are going on an Artwalk and having a little lunch. I think I'll take a nap on Sunday. I hope you have fun weekend plans. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Cuttlebug embossing folder, grungeboard star, Jenni Bowlin button, red buttons and lace from my stash, script stamp (no name), stars paper from the scrap box, Versafine ink, Cosmo Cricket polka dot paper, distress ink, SU punch.

happy dance

I'm doing a happy dance! I just got the Summer issue of Take Ten in the mail. Three of my cards are in here. Yipppeeee! If you happen to have this magazine, I'm on pages 98, 114, and 123. This is one of my very favorite publications and I feel so honored to be a part of it.