Thinking of You!!

I made this for my friend Cathy. She has a wacky sense of humor and I think she will appreciate the juxtaposition of the sign and the outhouse. I made this outhouse several months ago, but couldn't find a use for it until today. The Splitcoast Limited Supply Challenge was to use a die cut. Since I don't have a die cutting machine, I used my flower punches. I made my flowers using 2 different sizes of flower punches. I added rhinestones to the centers and made paper crimped leaves. I cut a fringe for the grass. I chalked clouds in the sky and drew in a couple of birds. I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment on a piece of white cardstock. I added brown ink and drew in lines with my prisma colored pencils to make it look like wood. This is all on a school folder.(Gotta love the back to school sales when these are really cheap!!) I opened the folder up and folded down the top half. I then punched holes in the sides to attach the twine closure. I am going to fill it up with stamped images.

I'ld pick you

I made this guitar shaped card for the Splitcoast Ways to use it challenge. I killed some file folders this morning and had to resuscitate one to make this card. I swiped brown ink over the file folder. I sponged yellow and orange. The result really looks like my real guitar. I added black cardstock, gold brads and wire. The wire was extremly hard for me to use on this card. I would have had an easier time changing the strings on my real guitar!! Note to self... next time use gold cording. I think I am going to glue a guitar pick on the inside and I am going to write... When it comes to choosing friends... I PICK you.

Seeing RED in the office

I made this card for the Splitcoast Ways to Use it Challenge. We were to use office supplies. My original idea was a total failure. I ended up killing 2 office files, may the rest in peace. I altered this office clip. I covered the clip with blue cardstock. I quilled 3 roses and added some crimped leaves. I have a good friend Anne, who loves Red. I made this card for her. It is about as CAS as you can get.

Bluebird of Happiness

I made this card for the Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge. I was inspired by this photo on my friend Lorraine's blog. I wish I could get a photo like hers. I have seen a couple of bluebirds in the past week or two, but never when I could catch them on film. The words Bluebird of Happiness went through my head as I was making this card. Wikipedia had this to say about bluebirds and happiness: "It is a widely accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, prosperity, herth and home, good health, new births, the renewal of springtime, etc. Virtually any positive sentiments may be attached to the bluebird." I am sure that this must be true, because they are such a beautiful creation of God. They make me happy to see. Maybe that is because blue is my favorite color.

I got this image in an image swap. I colored it with prisma colored pencils. I masked it and used chalks to make the greenery behind him. I quilled a flourish in the corner.

Ollie ollie oxin free..

OLLIE OLLIE OXIN FREE. Remember playing hide and seek and calling all the players in? This is what my sister and I used to say. I am saying this now so my little froggy will know it is safe to leave his hiding place...

After being promised that no-one is going to eat him, my little froggy came out of hiding. You can see why he hid in the first place, he is so little. He is only 1/4" big.
I just had to make another card for Cindy's teaparty challenge. This flower went togther much faster and easier than the first one. I punched three flowers. I used a 1/4" punch to punch the centers of the flowers. I then cut from one edge of the flowers to the centers and wrapped each flower around my quilled fringe coiled center. I made my lillypad using a 2"circle of green. I punched the little froggy with my frog punch. The water is done with bubble wrap. I frayed the ribbon to add interest. The wavy shape just happens to be the shape of my acryllic block. I just traced around it and cut it out. I used my itty bitty background for the lilly pad andthe base of the card. After making my first card I realized how close it was to the colors for the Splitcoast color challenge. I changed this card to comply with the challenge (as long as my water is a neutral color- well most of the time it is clear that is neutral right?)

Close up of the little froggy and quilled water lilly.

These are the punches I used for the flower and the little froggy.

I'm Hiding!!!

Close up view of the flower

Today is Teapot Tuesday on Cindy's blog. She had the cutest little froggy teapot. Today we were to bring our little froggies and a come to her lilly pond. One lilly pad per person. I had a little froggy all made and he decided to hide. He heard that last week teaparty ladies were talking about eating escargot in France. He figured if they were crazy enough to eat snails that he wasn't safe. So he has decided to stay hidden until the teaparty is over. I quilled this water lilly. The inside is a fringed coil made of pink, yellow and white cardstock. I then cut little white petals that I glued around the edges of the coil. I made my lilly pad out of a circle of green cardstock. I cut a ragged edge around the outside and I cut a v shape towards the center. I stamped the top of the lilly pad with my itty bitty backgrounds. I put the lilly and pad on a piece of paper that my friend Peggy gave me. It looks like it has water droplets on it. It seemed perfect for today's card. I added a ribbon and a black base. Do you think it looks at all like the photo I took on Sunday?

CAS thinking of you Sabrina

I made this card for the Splitcoast Clean and Simple Challenge. It was a sketch. I had this designer paper scrap on my desk from a card that I made last week. I added a ribbon, stamped a sentiment and added two little flower embellishments from my friend Sabrina.(hence the title of this card) A very simple and a very quick card, but I really like how it turned out.

Quilled Sampler and porcelain paper butterfly

The Splitcoast Stamper Technique Lovers Challenge today was quilling. This is right up my alley. They even used one of my older quilled cards as an example. What an honor. I was so excited. I called this card a Quilling Sampler because it has several different quilling techniques. It has coiled, fringed, punched and quilled flowers. I used a piece of designer cardstock that had flowers on it and I used that as my guide for my flowers. I used the porcelain paper technique on my butterfly. I hope to post some quilling tutorials and the porcelain paper tutorial sometime this week.

Some new photos to share

This is a photo that I took of lillies on the Mississippi river. We were taking my oldest son to scout camp. These lillies looked so pretty that I had to pull off in a scenic pull of to take a photo of them.

This is a photo that my oldest daughter took yesterday. We have a heard of deer (Is a group of deer a heard? I don't know.) that live in the woods near our house. This one was just standing by the edge of the woods yesterday and she grabed my camera and shot this really quickly before he got away.

Faux Bamboo tutorial

Here is the bamboo tutorial that I promised last week.

Joy-Tulips

I made this card for the Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge. I choose to take my inspiration from the tulips in this room. I stamped the tulips and scored 3 lines on either end of the panel. I colored the tulips with prisma colored pencils. I added 3 little rhinestones to each side. I matted the tulip panel with yellow and green the colors of the room. I also tied two ribbons. I stamped the sentiment with black stazon ink. I was going for a Clean and Simple look.

Long-Tall card with NO stamps allowed

I made this card for the Stampin B Design Team challenge. Vicky challenge everyone to make a long-tall card without using stamps. It also fit yesterday's Ways To Use it Challenge to use charms. I made my charm out of a chipboard flower covered with dp, pink beads, and pearl beads and wire. I hung my flower charm on a pink ribbon. I made my base using paper lace technique. I punched little flowers and added pearls. I also punched a big flower. My sentiment was a sticker that I have had for so long I forgot where I got it. I am going to send this card to my friend Anne. I was thinking about her the whole time I was making this card.

Farm Inchies

I made this card for the Splitcoast Stampers Limited Supply Challenge. Today's challenge was to use something that has a motor. I thought of this little tractor. I scored frames for my inchies. I stamped the images using black stazon ink. I made my own paper lace. I used my computer to print out a template. I traced and cut out the lace and used my paper piercer to make the holes in the lace. I tied a red gingham ribbon at the top of the paper lace panel. I did faux stitching around the edges.

Old School Charm

I made this for the Splitcoast Stampers Ways To Use it Challenge. It was to use a charm on the card. I have only a few charms in my collection of embellishments. It just so happened that I had sorted through my embellishments so I knew right away where my charms were. I had this little bow. I tried it on several images, but I liked it best on this one. This image is one that I recieved from my friend Ginny. She sent me a package this week with all sorts of new images to play with. I printed the sheet music with my computer on cream colored cardstock. The base of the card was made with a piece of designer paper that my secret sister at church gave me. It has a lacy printed design at the bottom. I cut along the edge of the lace and made a pocket to stick the sheet music into. I taped it back together on the back. I added the little pearls, a cream colored ribbon bow. I used my paper piercer on either side of where I wanted the bow charm to go. Then attached it with a small piece of wire. The image was colored with prisma colored pencils.

My son's boyscout photography merit badge

My son started working last night on his photography merit badge for boy scouts. The two of us had been discussing the requirements. As we were driving home, we saw this tree out in a field with the evening mist rising from the ground and the sun setting behind it, silhouetting it. I always carry my camera with me. I turned the car around and my son jumped out. He ran through the field and took this photo. We talked about with photography we never know when the opportunity for a photo will occur, so it is good to be prepared. We were both very proud of this photo.

Crimped Leaf Tutorial

Here is my tutorial for making

crimped paper leaves. I hope you enjoy it.

Pink, pink, pink

This card definitely is pink. It isn't my usual color. I am more of a blue person, but for some reason I felt compelled to make this pink card. It is for 2 challenges: Splitcoast Sketch Challenge, and the Stampin B's Design Challenge. I made the flowers and butterflies on Saturday. The flowers and butterfly were stamped with a versamark ink pad on pink paper. I then used my heat gun and gold embossing powder to make the gold edges. I then glued the flowers and butterfly paper to two layers of cardstock using Aleene's tacky glue. While the glue was still wet, I cut the flowers and butterfly out and shaped the petals and wings over my finger. When that glue dried, I brushed a coat of Aleene's tacky glue over the top surface. I used a really inexpensive paint brush... one that had originally been in a watercolor set that my kids took to school. The set when returned home at the end of the school year was ruined because all the colors were mixed. I salvaged the cheap brush to spread glue. That way if the brush gets ruined I am not that upset. After that top layer dried, I put the flowers together using gold brads. The antenea, and flower tendrils were made a thin strips of paper that had been heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I rolled the tendrils strips around the handle of the cheap paint brush. I added little rhinestones to the butterfly's body. I made the one gold leaf using a paper crimper.(I am working on a tutorial for making the leaves. I hope to have it posted this week.)

Pretty, pretty Pollys

This card was made for the Splitcoast Cards CAS24 challenge. It was a color challenge. I already had the parrot images in my computer. I just adjusted the coloring to make it match the color challenge.

Today for Cindy's teapot challenge, we were traveling to France for the tour de France.
Cindy told us about bikes, snails, and pelotons. I didn't have any snail stamps or images... so I let my mind wander... I looked out my window and saw birds sitting on a wire. I thought it would make a great story to have birds on a wire. But what kind of birds? I love the colors in parrots so I looked at a photo of a parrot and I drew one. I then scanned that parrot into my computer. I resized it, copied it and mirror flipped it and printed them on white cardstock. I colored them in with prisma colored pencils. I pierced the cardstock and ran twine for the wire. I chalked the sky and ground. I added rhinestone brads in the corners and matted the image with turquoise, green and red cardstock. Here... is my story... These two little parrots are named Michaelangelo and Leonardo-Sophisticated names like these aren't limited to turtles. They are art aficiandos. They have always wanted to visit Paris and the Louve Museum. After spending some time in Paris, they were heading towards Monaco. They planned their flight path to go through Bourg-Saint-Maurice where the end of the 16th stage of the tour de France takes place. Along the way, they sat on a wire watching the peloton pass. It was then that they noticed snails crossing the road. Escargot, Yummy!!! -for parrots, not for me!!

I wanna go... anywhere but here.

Have you ever wanted to be anywhere but where you are right now? Not just in location, but in circumstances? I know I do. I made this for my brother who is struggling with getting a job. He has been waiting for a long time and had to go for a lie detector test as part of the job screening process. I know today was going to be hard for him, so I made him this card. Isn't this little bear so cute. The colors that I used were from the Splitcoast Color Challenge. The sentiment "I wanna go..." is from a family vacation a long time ago. My brother and sister and I were all getting tired. We had passed a Travel Lodge sign that had their trademark SLEEPYBEAR on it. I don't remember for sure who started it, but before long we were all singing..."I wanna go to Sleepybear. I wanna go to Sleepybear." Eventually we got to a place to stop and spend the night. It wasn't in our timing, but in our Dad's timing becuase he was driving. That made me think that there are times that I want to reach a destination, and I must wait on my Heavenly Father. I'ld like to say that I wait patiently, but I can only say that I am trying to wait patiently for His perfect timing. I hope this encourages my brother.

Fabric Cards

All three of these cards were made for the Splitcoast Technique Lovers Challenge.

These flowers were stamped on fabric and then cut out. I used the same flower stamp to stamp the background on the base. I also used itty bitty background stamp to make the dots on the base of the card as well as the rectangle panel. I tied twine through the buttons. I also wound twine up on my pencil to make the flower tendrils. I used a light blue colored pencils to lightly color the centers of the flowers on the base of the card.

For this card, the flowers are also made out of fabric. I free hand cut the flower and layered them to give this card an Americana look. I tied twine to the panels and twine through the buttons. I stapled the panels at the top to add to the rustic look. I made this card for a friend who is having surgery today. Would you say a prayer for my friend Sue?

My last fabric card has little bunnies that were on the fabric. I cut around them and I have them up on dimensionals. I stitched around the edge of the card with twine. I then wrapped the top of the card with twine and finished it off with a button and a bow.

Faux Bamboo

I made this card for Splitcoast Stampers Inspiration Challenge. This mug was my inspiration.I did faux bamboo on the bottom of my card. I will try and get a tutorial for faux bamboo up sometime this week. I stamped my flower twice. I colored them, cut them out and layered them with dimensioanls in between. I used my paper crimper to make the leaves. I will do a tutorial for those soon too. I added glitter to the center of the flower. I used a ribbon to cover where the faux bamboo panel and the green panel met.

Fortunate Photo

I call this a fortunate photo because I saw this little beetle as I was leaving work yesterday. He was about 1/2 inch big. He was crawling on the gravel by my car. I might have stepped right over, or even worse right on him, but the sun shone on his shiny body and caught my eye. I had to run back into my office and grab my camera.

My two actresses

Here is a photo taken of my two daughters after their performance last night in the GRP Youth Musical Theatre. They were in FOOTLOOSE. These were the dresses that were their costumes for the dance. All the kids did a great job and looked great. I am a little bit prejudiced as their mom, but don't they look fabulous?

Prescott High School Colors

Today the Splitcoast Stampers Limited Supply Challenge was to either use your High School's colors or your Wedding colors. You were also to use a clip or photo corners. I decided to use my High School's colors. They were blue and gold. I also needed to make thank you cards. My teenage daughters have been rehearsing all summer for the Youth Summer Musical. They are performing the musical "FOOTLOOSE" Tonight is opening night. I wanted to thank the director, stage designer, costume designer... and all the other wonderful people who have volunteered all summer to bring this theatre experience to the kids. I decided to design the cards on my computer so my daughters could help with making the cards. I designed the card to look like the GRAND THEATRE that they will be performing in. You can see the theatre HERE. I didn't however get the clips or photo corners so I know that the challenge police will be after me. Maybe when I show them the brads on this card, they will show me a little leniency.

Seeing Double

I sketched these pansies and colored them in with my prisma colored pencils. I watercolored the blue behind them. Today's Splitcoast Stampers Ways to Use it Challenge was to use double images. I had to add double butterflies.

Fields of poppies

Here are two cards that I made that were inspired by this poppy art print. I drew the poppies and colored them with my prisma colored pencils. I made them for these challenges. Sketch Challenge 237, CAS Challenge 23 and Color Combo Challenge 227. That is a lot for only two cards.

Fishing is the sport of drowning worms!

I made this card for the Splitcoast Sketch Challenge 237. I drew this little bear yesterday as I was waiting to see my doctor as a check up on my blood pressure. I hate waiting usually, but yesterday with my little sketch pad in hand, I choose to see it as uninterrupted drawing time. I was hoping to use him on today's sketch. I had the card finished true to the sketch, but it felt like it needed more. I added the quote: Fishing is the sport of drowing worms!! It made me think of the Father/Son fishing day that our church had for Father's day. I was asked to photograph the event. I saw very little fish catching and a lot more worm drowning that day.

Another Grid Card

I love this little girl from the SU set Summer by the sea. She always looks so peaceful. I used paper piecing technique on the girl. I drew my grid with a black ink pen and watercolored each square of the grid with a different shade of blue. I layered the image with several layers of blue cardstock. I wrapped the card with twine, added 2 little brads and the BELIEVE sentiment.