Woot-woot! Two posts in one day!

I found a new sketch blog. If you read my last post from today, you know how much I depend on sketches. Well, the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog has some great inspiration. This is the card I completed with this week's sketch. I just love House Mouse images...they're so clever and cute. This little guy makes me smile because of his full belly. Ok, so I admit it that he reminds me of how I feel after I snack like a madwoman. When I was a kid, my mom used to say that my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Yeah, I guess I do have a tendency to want a little bit of every sweet I can get ahold of, and often end up feeling bloated and yuck because of it!

When my design mojo deserts me...

...and this happens quite frequently, I might add...I love sketches to help jump start it. Today, I got to play a little bit. I don't know what happened with my plans to sleep in. All I know is that after a Harry Potter movie marathon yesterday, plus the emotional stuff from going to the cemetary on Friday, I figured I'd sleep until at least 9:00 this morning. Nope. I woke up at 5:30ish. What in the heck? I tried to get back to sleep, but no dice. So, I got up, got dressed in some bum around comfies, and read a book for a bit, then settled in at my craft table. I made three cards. Not many, but I still feel like I accomplished something.

I made the top card for the Just Magnolia challenge (link in my sidebar). I am now addicted to Magnolia stamps and I blame it all on my friend Brenda. She introduced me to Tilda and Edwin. At first, I didn't get it. I told her that they were creepy because they don't have any mouths. They reminded me of that Twilight episode that I haven't seen in years, but it apparently traumatized me enought that I remember it! Anyhow, Bren kept creating with them and I started realizing just how cute they were. Then I read the reason that they don't have mouths...Magnolias are angels. Since angels speak with their hearts, they have no need of mouths. Yeah, the marshmallow in me was all gooey. Now my wallet is much lighter, because I bought lots of Magnolia stamps. I particularly love this one. She's colored with copics, has liquid applique for "fur" and glossy accents to give her little boots some shine. Don't ask me what color copics I used, because I might just laugh at you. I tend to color my images ahead of time, then search for paper that matches when I'm feeling crafty. I have had this little Tilda colored for more than a month.

So, anyhow, I also uploaded a Whiff of Joy card. I love this image from Whiff of Joy. She's just so cute with her little winter outfit. I based it on the sketch at Mojo Monday and entered it in the Whiff of Joy challenge, as well. And no, the picture is not crooked. The image and papers on the card are deliberately tilted. Again, don't ask what color copics grace this little girl, because I'm clueless. What else is new?

Happy Halloween to all of you internet junkies and everyone else, too. I'm off to see if my design mojo has returned or if I'll need to find another sketch. Hey, at least one benefit to that is that there is usually a challenge prize attached. I'm all about that!!!

Why are you still reading? Shouldn't you be giving out some candy right about now?!?! And don't look at me....the kids in my neighborhood are at a party. I guess the parents figure it's safer that way, but I sure miss seeing all of the costumes.

Some days...

...I get a reminder that I am not the only one grieving. I am not the only one in this world that has suffered a huge loss. I usually try to remember that, but it's not a lie to say that grief is a very self-centered thing. You get so wrapped up in your own emotions and loss that you forget that others have lost that person too, or someone else close to them.


After camping this weekend, my brother-in-law invited me to go to the RennFest with a group of his friends. His close friend Eric lost his sister in a car accident last spring. Eric and I got to talking about it. He said his mom is having a really rough time, understandably. I can't imagine losing a child. He mentioned how his sister loved frogs and even had a few pet tree frogs for a bit. Since her death, his mom has taken to collecting frog knick-knacks to memorialize her daughter. I recently redecorated at my house. My one bathroom was decorated entirely in frogs, but I had already given most of that stuff away. I remembered that I have this really cute ceramic tree frog that wraps his legs around a jar candle. He's got such a sweet face and is wearing this big yellow hat. I told Eric about it and he said his mom would love something like that, so I offered to give it to her.


Well, this woman doesn't know me from Adam, so I decided I needed to make a sympathy card to go with the frog and write a little note in there for her. Guylou's Gabrielle angel seemed perfect for the card. I had already colored her dress but hadn't figured out what to do with her wings or hair yet. Since Eric's sister was blonde, I colored the angel's hair blonde (it also goes well with the blue of the dress). Then I remembered that I have this awesome new glitter flock. I put a really thick layer of KI Gloo on her wings and sprinkled what seemed like half of my container of flock on top. Once dry, it resembled sparkly feathers. Perfect! Here she is:

The papers are from DCWV's linen closet line. The image is colored with copics. Her dress is four shades of blue - B01, B00, B000, and B0000. Her hair is Y32, Y21 (I think), and Y11. The coloring is a bit brighter IRL.

You can get your own digi of Gabrielle by joining Guylou's Inimitability at CDAC (link in my sidebar). Her store has many other fab images, as well. You can see for yourself, just take a peek at guylousinimitabilitystore.blogspot.com. Here's an example of another image from G's store:

Thanks, as always, for looking and for any comments. Have a fun day!

Simon Says and other fun stuff

So, I was very happy to get a bit of time to play with some images today. I colored a bunch of them last night and added all types of fun stuff, like liquid applique, flower soft, shimmery flock, glossy accents, etc. It was quite fun. Some of them didn't get any of that stuff, but that's okay. Today, I got the chance to put a couple of the images to use. This card is for two challenges: 1) simon says stamp's recipe challenge. The recipe is quite easy. Thank goodness it does not require actual cooking, because then I might fail!!! LOL. Anyway, the challenge was to make a card using two patterned papers (a solid for matting was also allowed), three types of embellies, and one image. Challenge 2) Mo's Digital Pencil, to use a sketch provided and of course, an image from MDP. I love Mo's work. I think she is so talented and creative. Her images always bring a smile to my face, and this chubby little fairy is no different. I love that Mo shows us that we don't have to be model skinny to be happy and darned cute, too!

If you're interested in giving the challenges a shot, just go to:

simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com

mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com

I apologize that the links don't want to work yet again. Blogger hates me. Really.




While I was already on a roll, I did another card with Tilda from Magnolia. I colored and cut around Tilda to place her in the autumn scene.

You can get your own autumn scene digi stamp from Guylou's Inimitability store. The link's in my sidebar. She also sells the scene with a cute cowboy or cowgirl in front of the fence, or without any characters at all. This scene has so many possibiities for both Halloween and Thanksgiving cards, as well as general cards for this fall season. Take a peek into her store...Guylou offers a little something for everybody.


And now I am off to do the dishes, or maybe make a card, or perhaps I should take a nap. I'm babysitting the neighbor's kids for a while tonight. They're awesome kids...very well-behaved and fun to be around. They are kids, though, meaning that they have way more energy than I could ever hope to have, so maybe I had better take that nap.....

Whiff of Joy challenge 89

All of my friends know that I love Elisabeth Bell's stamps. I think she is super talented. Her stamps are not only cute, but they have tons of detail. Some of her images are sweet, some are sassy, and all of them are fabulous. My friend Bren told me about the Whiff of Joy Monday challenge blog and I had to go check it out (and, of course, follow it and participate). This is the card I made for challenge 89, based on this sketch. You can see the DT work and other great entries at http://wojmondaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/10/challenge-89-janes-sketch.html. Sorry that you have to cut and paste it; blogger is being stupid about adding links to my posts. Well, really, it's probably operator error, but shh...

A day to create...yippeee!

So, yeah, I have tons of stuff I could be doing for my house. The painting is done and now the walls are just bare and naked, staring at me in their new glorious colors. I still need to pick the photos that I want to have blown up and hung on my walls downstairs. I need to go back to Target and Hobby Lobby for more white shelves. I need to try to find the photographer whose work I saw last weekend at the Bridge Bust. I fell in love with two of his photos and dummy me didn't buy them there and then. In my defense, the ones I wanted were blown up to poster size and framed, and we really had no room in my cousin's jeep to haul them home. Four women, our luggage, and other goodies we'd purchased took up most of the space. However, I also forgot to grab his card. Darnit! Anyway, I need to hang the huge, heavy mirror that my mom gave me (love that thing...it's gorgeous). I need to find some blocks for a decorative accent in my bathroom...In addition to these things, I need to pull down my winter clothes from the attic and put my summer clothes away. Yeah, tons of stuff that I could and should be doing today. However, the only thing I plan to do is clean the bathroom. I cleaned all day yesterday, making my downstairs and bedroom much more liveable and pretty. Today, all I want to do is hang out in my scrap room for a bit, and maybe read a little. I've already made a few cards today, but now my energy has deserted me and I'm going to go read. Before I go, though, I wanted to share some cards that I recently made for Doris.

Doris is the owner of this wonderful B&B where we stayed last weekend. Her place is called the Victorian Rose and it's located in Mt Joy, PA. Beautiful area, beautiful home, lovely place overall. As a thank you to Doris, I'm making her some Christmas cards to give out this year. Guylou's images were perfect for paper piecing and maybe a bit unconventional for traditional Christmas cards, which is why I chose to use them. Here's the set I completed:


You can find all of the images at her store (see link on my sidebar, because I still can't seem to get blogger to insert links into my posts. What a PITA).

As always, thanks for reading my long ramblings. I'm a chatterbox both in real life and on the internet! LOL.

Four ladies, thank goodness no funeral

...but it sure felt like there might be one when our balloon pilot decided that we needed to view the world from 10,000 feet. Um...yeah. I am afraid of heights. Did I mention that? I really enjoyed our hot air balloon flight on Memorial Day weekend, but that pilot kept us no higher than 750 feet, which felt more like ten. When you don't have anything to visually anchor you to the ground, your perception of height is way off. This rule falls away when you are ten thousand friggin' feet in the air, though, and everything looks like ants, your toes are freezing, and the cloud cover is riding at your height. Ok, okay, so it was cool. For a bit. Then we could have gone down and seen some of the sights a bit closer to the ground. We did that eventually. Overall, although I sound like a whining, complaining sissy right about now, I'm glad we did it. It was cool to have a different experience than we had on our first flight. It's good to try new things. And land safely.