I guess sometimes thank yous are sad

So, I was going to go into this long post about my furry children. I started to type it. I got two paragraphs in and realized, "dumbass. You're at work and crying here is not cool. Not cool at all" and so, I decided to delete all of that and just keep it simple. Isn't that some kind of acronym or something? KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Yeah, I think that's it. So, here's me, keeping it simple. I will not comment again on the stupid part.

We lost one of our precious kitties back in April. Sophie became gravely ill to the point that the treatments would only prolong her misery and we had to make that awful decision to let her cross the Rainbow Bridge. She was only 11 and I miss that affectionate, crazy, sweet, smart, playful cat. Here she is, in a photo taken on her last day here on Earth:

She spent most of the day in bed with me (that big hump behind her is my rather large knee!) and then we made the trip to the vet that evening.

Her vet is amazing. Seriously amazing. So knowledgeable and skilled. So friendly and patient. The best part? She obviously chose the field because she loves animals (especially cats)...and still takes the time to show them that love whenever they come visit her. I know that sounds weird. I mean, what vet doesn't love animals? I assume that all (or at least most) of them do, but some just become jaded over time or just get so busy that they forget their patients need attention, too. Not Dr. Wozniak. She was stroking Sophie's fur, rubbing under her chin (a fave spot), and basically loving on her the whole time she was talking to us. Sophie was calm with her, not trying to get away or pissing herself in fear like she did with the last vet. I know it was hard for her to administer that injection.I could see that all over her face. She did it with compassion, though. Shit. I'm crying at work. Ok...back in a minute.

I'm back (it's been a few minutes, but hard for you to tell in blog land, I know). So, anyhow, I made Dr. Wozniak and her wonderful staff a thank you card. She has a hard job. I know it's rewarding at times, but sometimes, it just sucks. I wanted to thank them for all that they did...and still do...for our babies. So, I colored up this angel from the extremely talented Mo Manning. It's not my best coloring job, but I think it was appreciated. One of these days, I'll finish one class at Kit and Clowder so I can finally take another. I'm working on Skin and Hair. I've been working on it for over a year. I'm slow like that.

I love this image. I colored her with copics and tried to make her kitty look at least somewhat siamese. Her wings are blingy, but it's hard to tell in the photo.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for taking the time to stop by, and if you made it to the end of my sad post, thanks for that, too. I think I failed at the KISS part, though. Not surprising, is it?

Hanging with friends, the human kind

The purpose of this blog isn't to bring anyone down, so I'll make the sad part short (although this news is nothing close to sweet). We found out on Friday that one of our kitties isn't doing well, and she probably won't make it through the year. I am not handling it well at all; my cats are my babies. Anyone who knows me knows how crazy I am about them. Sophie was sleeping all day and I needed some distraction; I got it in the form of a crop with some new friends. My buddy Kelly (KraftinKelly) invited me to a crop near Philly, so I took the drive. It turned out to be a great choice. I had a blast; I laughed so hard that I literally came close to peeing my pants on a few occasions. Let me just say: jelly belly is entirely too good at flavored jelly beans, and you do not want to play BeanBoozled if certain tastes make you sick. I was tasting "vomit" and "rotten fish" jelly belly aftertaste the whole two hour drive home! EW. On the plus side, I woke up Sunday morning and spent an hour and a half loving on my girl, until she did the typical cat thing and got bored with me.

I wasn't super productive at the crop, but I got a few things done. Prepare for a bit of picture overload (fyi, as usual, all images are colored with copics and I was too lazy to note the colors I used). Here goes:

This cutie is called Daisy Fairie Marci, from La La Land Crafts. I think she might be retired now, though. She's for a dear friend who is going through some rough times right now, and I just want her to know that I'm thinking of her. My friend loves fairies and has a fairy garden, so she seemed perfect for her.











Another La La Land image, because I just love them. Also another card for a wonderful friend going through some hard times. Her issues are similar to mine, unfortunately. She has some sick furry babies at home. I wanted to send her some happy mail to give her a paper hug. To keep the La La Land love going:

Now, this one is kind of different than the others, because I tried something new. There's an amazing tutorial on the La La Land blog on how to make this fun rose pattern. So, I downloaded the digi of Lovely Marci (she really is lovely) and gave it a shot. You should try, too! It's so much easier than it looks! Thanks, Debbie, for the awesome tutorial. This was my first time using my new leaf dies from My Favorite Things, too. I love them because you can layer them or use them alone. It's hard to tell from this pic, but the one behind the red rose is popped up for some dimension.

And last but not least:

For this one, the image is Some Odd Girl's Crazy Love Tia. I tried to color her with long blonde hair and my girls are sealpoint siamese. Their tails only get fluffy like that when they're fighting, though. lol.

That's all from me today. I figure I've bugged you enough! I made more card kits and just never finished them at this crop. I was too distracted by new friends, laughter, BeanBoozled, Catchphrase, and yummy food. I figure those are all nice distractions, right?!?

Drop and run!

Look, here are those two cards I made earlier, that I told you about in my last (very short) post. I know, I know....just say it...FINALLY.

This first one was for a wonderful friend's amazing daughter, for her birthday.

This is such a cute Maggie. I don't own her, unfortunately. I got her in a card kit swap through the Magnolia-Licious group on Yahoo. I colored her up with my copics and used this adorable lady bug die cut (also in the card kit). I added my own ladybug button from my stash. I wrote a note to Kyra in the card and sent her birthday present off in good faith that our USPS would deliver it. Alas, they did not. The package has been lost for over a month now. Sigh...

 

Anyway, this second card went to my gram following a surgical procedure that kept her in the hospital for a few days. She may be in her 80's, but she's strong and stubborn, so now she's home and recovering with aplomb. Purple is her favorite color, and she likes feminine touches, flowers, and birds. This is another image that I don't own and was supplied to me in a card kit. She was so much fun to color, though, that I might have to hit Diana's store.

 I've gotten a bit closer to making more cards than just these two. I've colored some images and signed up for a crop in November. Yeah, I haven't gotten much further than that. Baby steps, right? Christmas is fast approaching, though, and I've got to make a few cards for those people that won't ever shut up if I don't. LOL. Thanks for stopping by and I'll just hope to have more to show you in the upcoming weeks.

Just under the wire

When I visited my friend Sara last weekend, we spent some quality time with our copics, coloring away. I came home with colored images, all ready to be smacked down onto some cards. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to find the time to do so. Or, if I had the time, my motivation just wasn't there. Enter the Mojo Monday sketch. I love playing along with sketches and this one is pretty awesome. So, I started rooting around in my papers (of which I have tons, so this took a while) and my colored images, trying to find an image that might work. When I found this cute little image from Whimsy and the papers to match her, I checked this week's Whimsy challenge and guess what? Ribbon and lace. Yeah, I can do that. The hard part about that is choosing which piece of ribbon and lace to use, since I have three huge drawers full. I'm a crafting hoarder. What can I say?

Anyway, with the Whimsy and Mojo Monday challenges in mind, an image I colored last weekend in hand and pretty papers on my desk, this is the creation that emerged:

For the following challenges:
Mojo Monday - sketch 300
Whimsy Inspirations - ribbon and lace

For all of my American friends, I hope you had an amazing 4th, and that while watching fireworks, you remembered our wonderful military who do so much for us.

So sweet, I can't believe I forgot about her!

Look at this cutie. I don't know how I did it. Maybe it was the insane amount of stamps that I have. Maybe it was that I purchased her so long ago, when she was first released (before her retirement). Maybe it was my fascination with my newer stamps. I don't know what insanity possessed me, but I forgot that this little sweetie was hanging out in my collection until Whimsy released their new stamps this month. She came out of retirement to be one of them (lucky girl!), and it just sparked my befuddled brain. I thought, "hey, wait! I think I have that one!" and sure enough, I found her hanging out with my other Elisabeth Bell stamps. Of course, I've got so many of them, she just got lost in the shuffle, poor little thing. Anyway, here she is, resurrected from the little stamp storage area in my scrap room. Isn't she darling? You can find her now at Whimsy stamps.

I colored her with copics. More specifically, E42,41,40 and R85,83,81 for her outfit, with a red stardust pen for some bling. I added pink frantage around the image, made my own little rosette out of lace, stuck pink rose ribbon through with a hatpins, added some old crochet, a vine die, butterflies, leaves, a charm, and a gingham ribbon, then perched her on some paper I made myself out of scraps. I love the look of patchwork, so I took a bunch of my scraps and made my own.

Sorry for the rather washed out picture. I'll try to get a better one later, before I gift her to a coworker on Monday. She needs the uplift; she's been dealing with some health issues and a bit of homesickness lately. Since she makes my days at work more fun, I decided I needed to do something for her, too.

This card is for the following challenges:
Whimsy Inspiration Challenge Blog - shaped card

Whimsy Stamps New Release Day 3

Hello and welcome to the Whimsy Stamps June Release Review Day Blog Hop! Woot Woot! In case you can't tell, I've been bouncing off the walls and super excited to join the DT for this month's release. I think I drove poor Simonne crazy, but she was too nice to say so.

Anyway, yesterday (June 19th) Whimsy Stamps released this month's new rubber designs, Shapeology dies and Whimsy Designer Paper packs. From June 18th until today the Whimsy Stamps DT and Special Guest (that’s me! yippee!) are showcasing these fabulous new goodies with a daily blog hop and I am part of today's hop! Each blog hop has a prize of 2 new release stamps hidden somewhere along the way and you have 24hrs to enter each prize draw. To be entered into today's blog hop prize draw, be sure to leave a comment on ALL of the DT's posts listed on the Whimsy blog by 12.00PM EST tomorrow. All winners will be announced on the Whimsy blog tomorrow!

For my blog hop card, I inked up the adorable "Sweet Sparkle" by the very talented Sylvia Zet. I love these images because they are so cute and so easy to color. Here's what I did with her this time:

For my last card with this image, I went a bit brighter. This time, I toned things down a bit for a softer look. I colored her with copics and added some sentiments from the new release called "Seashells by the Seashore". Papers are Graphic 45. I used punches to make the butterflies, photo corner, and grass, as well as my cloud die from Spellbinders and a Sassafras Lass flower to mimic the sun.

Remember that the entire new release is available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you’ve enjoyed the new release!

We're hopping for Whimsy's Newest Stamp Release!

Hello everyone! I am beyond excited (dancing around the room, hollering like a banshee), thrilled, happy, and whatever similar adjective you can find to be the Special Guest for this month’s Whimsy Stamps release! Today is the first day of the Whimsy Stamps 3-day June release event and we are kicking things off with a Sneak Peak Blog Hop! To be entered into today's blog hop prize draw of 2 new release stamps, be sure to leave a comment on ALL of the DT's posts listed on the Whimsy blog by 12.00PM EST tomorrow. All winners will be announced on the Whimsy blog on Friday.

Today we are excited to share sneak peeks of some of the brand new Wee Stamps, Kenny K and Momas Collection stamps that will be available to buy from the Whimsy Stamps store TOMORROW! For today’s card, I inked up Sweet Sparkle by Sylvia Zet. I'm a huge fan of her images, because they are just too cute and so sweet. Plus, they're just such a pleasure to color. Ok, I'll shut up and show her to you. Here you go:

Doesn't she just make you want to smile? I decided to give her really bright hair, so I made her outfit a bit more neutral so it didn't clash. She's colored with copics, but I know you're not surprised to hear that. For those of you who visit this blog, you know that's my favorite medium. Anyway, after I colored her up, I just started tossing things at the card to see what would stick. There's some dies, some seam binding, pearls, a metal, and a few different types of flowers thrown in there. I finally decided it was done. What do you think? You want to own this little stamp, don't you? Go ahead, go get her. She's available tomorrow. And wait for tomorrow, because I know you'll like that stamp, too. Cuteness!

Don’t forget to stop by again tomorrow for the full reveal of the new release and the New Release Blog Hop! Thanks so much for stopping by and happy hopping!

Whoops! This post is way overdue!!!

My friend Sara's birthday was way back in the early part of the month. I made her a card but didn't want to post it since she is a frequent visitor to this blog. Well, she told me that she got the card, loved it, and so forth. Yeah, that was something like 10 days ago. I should have posted it long before now. Better late than never, as the saying goes. Plus, I am going to a crop tomorrow and don't feel like packing, so posting on my blog allows me to do something other than pack and yet still feel productive. So, here she is:

She's an adorable stamp from Sweet Pea, illustrated by Conie Fong. She's called "Flowers on the Beach" and you can find her here. Isn't she precious? This card has a lot of my typical crafting style, which is to say, grab any nearby embellishment and toss it at the card until something suits. As you can see, lots of metal, flowers, punches, stick pins, even a button and some cheesecloth. I also played around a bit with some frantage. I think the silver frantage works great with this image; it looks kind of black Hawaiian beachy. I'm waiting on some of the white frantage, though. I ordered it a while ago but it got held up. Darnit all. I am not patient and hate waiting!

This cutie was colored with copics. I've added some bling in the flower centers. I also distressed the edges of the papers, which are Graphic 45. I guess that's about it. I have to go pack now. I don't feel like it, but it would kind of suck to go to a crop with nothing to do all day!!! Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

Mingling!

I'm involved in various groups for various things. One of those is a yahoo group focused on creating with the adorable Magnolia and Wee stamp lines. As part of this group, I participate in a "mingle" where you make a card for another group member and mail it to them. I was late this time around and got my card in under the wire. Here she is:

This is just a quick post to drop my card and run. I am trying really hard to get some other cards created tonight. Mr. Mojo is being a brat. He wants to take a nap, but I'm trying to wake him up. I already gave him a bath in glossy accents. He's all pretty and shiny now while he naps, the little brat. Wish me luck on waking him up, so I can finish the cards I started at a crop yesterday!

Yay, yay, yay!!! Did I say, "Yay!!!"

Finally!!! I can do the happy dance (feel lucky that you can't see it. I have no rhythm at all). I will be the guest DT member for Whimsy's rubber stamp release in June! I am beyond excited. I can't wait to get started, play with new goodies, and showcase my work alongside such a talented DT. What an honor. Yeah, my cats are looking at me funny, as I do the excited butt wiggle and try to type at the same time. Not an image you want in your head, I'm sure, so let's move on to other things.

What are you doing for your mom (or the mother figure in your life) for Mother's Day? And if you're a mom, what are your family's plans to spoil you? We took my mom to dinner last night, as she will be out of town as of tomorrow morning. I had fun coloring an image for her Mom's Day card while I was visiting my friend Sara over the last few days. I kept the card clean and simple this time. Gimme some kudos, please, because you know that is hard for me. And to keep a card CAS and actually like how it turned out? Well, that's pretty much a miracle!

Ok, ok. I'll shut up and show you the card.

The adorably sweet image is a Wee Stamp by Sylvia Zet from Whimsy. Isn't she precious? I added flowersoft after coloring her up with my copics. Sara and I critique each other's work as we color, which is awesome. I love that, and I love that we can bounce ideas off of each other and learn from each other. Well, she advised me to blend her hair a bit more and I said no. Man, I'm an idiot sometimes. Yes, Sara, I am saying that you were right. Oh, well. My mom liked her, and that's all that matters. And I actually like the overall design of the card, which is shocking. I really do have such a hard time with CAS cards and admire the people who do them so well.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your Mother's Day is fantabulous!!!

Third time's the charm!

Or wait, is it the fourth time for me? Hmmm....I can't remember. Anyway, I'm trying out once again to be a GDT on the Whimsy Team. There's a multitude of reasons to give this spot another shot, but I'll just give you a few: 1) they're talented, which means it'd be an honor to have my work showcased with theirs; 2) it's a chance to express my creativity on a wider scale; 3) I love Whimsy's products. They have wonderful artists designing for them, with things like adorable stamps, pretty papers, and fun dies. It'd be fun to play along with all of the cool new products!

I made this card below with one of their newer stamps, illustrated by the immensely talented Elisabeth Bell. As you know, I've been a fan of hers for a really long time. My dear friend Sara blessed me with this stamp for my birthday. Isn't she too cute? And even though she has a little bunny and chick friends, I think she's great for occasions other than Easter. In this case, she's showcased on a Mother's Day card:

In real life, the colors are a little brighter, but it's too dark right now to get a picture in natural light and I won't have a chance to do so before the DT call is over. Darn work, expecting me to be there during the day! LOL. Anyway, this cutie is called Strawberry Swing, and you can find her HERE. I colored her with copics. Flowers are Prima and the Dollar Store. Papers are Fruit Stand from Doodlebug. The bow is seam binding. I used  die to cut the vines and I got the doily in a lot off of ebay. I think that about covers it!

This card is also for the following challenges:
Critter Sketch: use buttons
Cardabilities: sketch #73
7 Kids Challenge: April Showers bring May Flowers
Simon Says: Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss: Ribbons and Pearls

As always, thanks for looking. I hope you had a fantastic weekend! (Oh, and wish me luck, please!)

Edited to add: Many thanks to those of you who clicked on the link to my card for the Cardabilities challenge. Thanks to you, I was a featured designer. You rock! THANKS!

Love is in the air!

...and all of that sappy stuff. My adopted baby brother is getting married in less than a week. I call him my "adopted" brother because he is really my brother-in-law and I have sort of taken to calling him my second younger brother. I love the guy and I am so happy for him. He gets upset with me if I don't make him a card; I never hear the end of it if he gets a store bought card from me. So, tonight I set about making him and his bride Kerry a card just for them.

This is what happened when I sat down in my craft room, music playing, a cat at my feet, and just let things come as they would:

Papers are My Mind's Eye Breeze. I chose them because the wedding colors are yellow and grey. I added the pop of red flowers with the flower soft, since he requested some red in their wedding. I'm not sure how Kerry has adopted this color into the scheme. I guess I'll find out on Saturday! Anyway, the cardstock is Bazzill. The image is Sarah Kay for Stampavie. I bought it simply because it reminded me of Kerry and Squid (that's my nickname for him). I purchased it and the grass and tiny flower stamps from my favorite stamping store in PA, Stamp Hideaway. Heidi's store is well worth a visit. She makes her own stamps there; the little grass and tiny red flowers are exclusive to her store.

I'm digressing again. That's nothing new, I know. The image was colored with copics. I mainly used Y13,11, and 00 as well as C5,3,1,and 00 for their outfits. I cut out a lot of shapes with my dies and punches, threw on some buttons, lace, and pearls, tied a bow with some seam binding, and ta-da!

Thanks for visiting. I hope you had a fabulous weekend. This card is for the following challenges:
Oozak - anything goes with pearls, lace and ribbon
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - April Showers OR spring flowers (I obviously used spring flowers)
Papertake Weekly - Bingo. I chose punches, free space, and ribbon

A little sassy, A lot sweet

My friend Danni's birthday is coming up later this month. Danni is a bit of a sassy chick, with a wicked sense of humor and brutal honesty just when you need it, all wrapped up in sweetness. She's a wonderful friend to have who is always quick to help when needed and jump to my defense even when I'm too oblivious to recognize that I need a defender. I was visiting at my aunt's this weekend, where I got the chance to not only see my family but also to color some images while my aunt scrapbooked. I colored this adorable image with Danni in mind, illustrated by Krista Smith for Sugar Nellie as part of the "Simply Sassy" line. I've had this stamp for ages; it was about time I pulled her out again.

As usual, I used copics. Unfortunately, I didn't note down the colors. Sorry about that! I chose the colors based on Saturated Canary's color challenge here.

The sentiment is kind of hidden at this angle, but it says, "May all your dreams come true." Seemed pretty fitting for a birthday card, as well as this cutie sitting in her pillows. The cream colored flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and the pink ones are from my stash. I think I got them at AC Moore in the wedding section. The big flower is actually a hair piece where I removed the bobby pin used to hold it. Papers are Bazzill (cardstock) and Neopolitan by Recollections (Michael's). Pearls are from Michael's, as well. The felt corner is Heidi Swapp and I think long since retired. I'm working through my stash of them.  I guess that's about it!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Saturated Canary - color challenge
Sugar Bowl - anything goes with Sugar Nellie image
Oozak - anything goes with your fave color(s) - pink is my fave
Sunday Sketch and Stamp - sketch #141

Now to figure out the perfect gift to get for a friend who is both sassy and sweet!

FYI, it's my friend Tracy's birthday today (you can see her card a few posts below). Tracy has been with me through a lot of hard times and has always been supportive and compassionate. She makes me laugh, which is always a great quality to have in a friend. Please visit her blog and wish her a happy birthday.

Whimsy DT Application for March

So, as you can see, I decided to keep this title free of puns or otherwise potentially confusing wording. For once, my title is very cut-and-dried, can't-miss-what-I-mean. I didn't want anyone on the Whimsy Team to miss it. :)

If you can't guess from the straightforward title (I know, it's confusing because I'm just not usually so...well...dry with my titles, unless we're discussing dry humor), I am applying to be on the Whimsy DT as a guest designer for March.

I've been a fan of Whimsy Stamps for a while. I love the fact that you can find so many things there, from beautiful digi papers, to adorable and fun stamps in both rubber and digi to shaped sentiments with special dies just to cut them out. How cool is that, and so super easy, too? They even have personalized stamps, as I know because I just got one. LOVE! I used it for the first time on the back of my card below. I think it was appropriate to break it in with a Whimsy image, don't you?

So, this is my brand spankin' new card that I just made tonight, with this DT call and my friend Barb in mind. This sweet girl is from Elisabeth Bell's Cottage Cuties collection and her name is SkippyDee. We can't forget her furry little friend, too. That's Bella. I'm a cat person, so I love when Elisabeth puts Bella with her images.

The design is based on sketch #54 at CLP Challenge Blog. Papers are Prima Songbird that I distressed and inked. Embellishments from my stash. I colored SkippyDee and Bella with copics. Here goes with the colors (I tend to use a lot, so this could take a while):

Skin: E11, E00, E000 and R20 for the cheeks

Hair: E25, E31, E50

Hat: E40, E41, E42

Scarf: R20, R21, R22 and a green spica pen for the polka dots

Shirt: G20, G21, G24 (it's a lot more muted than it looks like in this pic)

Pants: E41, E42, E44

Bella: Y28 (bell), C1, C3, C5

Log: E23, E57, E59

 

I think it would be so much fun to participate as a guest DT for the March new release. Not only because I'd get to work alongside some amazing artists (truth, not brown-nosing, just so you know), but let's be honest - I'd get a huge kick out of being one of the first to see the new products. Don't fib; you know you'd want to have that honor, too. Plus, their products always inspire me to create. I wasn't much good at work today; I kept picturing cards to make in my head. Good thing it was a slow Friday.

 

Just in case my new card doesn't showcase enough of my crafting style for the DT to make a decision, here are two of my older creations:



I recently purchased some Sylvia Zet stamps, too, and hope to create with those later this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

Pssssstttt....Whimsy Team, March is my birthday month. Don't you think it'd be a great gift to let me design for your team? Not that there's any pressure or guilt tripping going on or anything. Really.

My first card is also for the following challenges:
CLP: sketch 54
Elphine House: vintage
Elisabeth Bell's World: vintage Valentine

There's no place like gnome!!

(Sorry for the lateness of this post. I had issues with blogger today).

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's! G has challenged us to add spots/dots to our projects this time around. That's an easy one, since I love polka dots. The hard part was picking the paper to use, because I've got lots of polka dotted paper. I let the image inspire me, which helped. I have a love of cutesy gnomes. Not so much that I actually have any of the little guys at my house, but enough that every little gnome embellishment comes home with me and I smile at every gnome-laden card I see on blogs and in online galleries. For some reason, G's new image of this little house just reminded me of a gnome's cottage. I decided to paper piece the heck out of it to make it even more gnome-friendly. Check it out:

As previously stated (that sounds so pompous, doesn't it? But once again, I digress...), I paper pieced the house. I popped up the windows and door for dimension, added flower soft on the windowsills, and used some stickers from Barnes and Noble. I have entirely too many stickers left in my stash, and just when I thought I had weeded them all out, too! Anyway, the sentiment is from Stampin' Up. The doily came in a pack of 500 that I got on ebay. Okay, it was probably closer to 100, but the stack was so high it looked more like 500. I always sucked at those "how many gumballs are in the jar" games.

Now it's your turn to play with some spots. Enter your project at Guylou's for the chance to win a gift card to her store and be a guest designer on a future challenge. You can also head by the store to pick up this cute little house as a freebie! How cool is that? Go on. Get over there. Go! Go! Go! (Yeah, I know I'm bossy. And when I forget, my baby brother reminds me).

FINALLY! Done, de done, done...DONE!

I am finally finished all of my Christmas cards. Ok, I probably spoke too soon. I will probably receive a card from someone and need to throw another one together quickly to return the sentiment. But, for now, I can feel happy, relieved and de-stressed because I am done (at least for now)!

My house needs cleaned, but I didn't have the energy for that today. Frankly, I didn't have much energy at all, as I'm still not feeling 100%. However, I pushed past the light-headedness, low energy, and headache to finish up my cards. Here's a few that I managed to knock out today:

If nothing else, I had fun coloring with my copics and playing with pretty papers. I have way more Christmas paper than I ever thought I could possibly buy. I just seem to gravitate towards it. As you can see, I also had some fun playing with my Nestabilities and some embellishments. I even found a few stickers in my stash that worked well (who knew? I thought I'd pretty much gotten rid of all of them).

Now it's time to get crackin' on the calendars I have to finish before my family comes over on December 22nd. What was that I said earlier about feeling relieved and de-stressed? I think I lied.

Fantastic....five?!?

No, this isn't about the movie "The Fantastic Four", which I have never seen. The title just came to me because I managed to complete five cards today, and to me, well, that is fantastic. I went to my first ever crop to benefit Soldier's Angels. I met several wonderful women there, and had a blast crafting with them. It was really fun to sit with Karen, Darlene, and Tara. I met them for the first time today. We were all working on different things and it was so interesting to talk to them about their projects and lives. What a great group of women. Karen was making dolls and she made me one with a cute little strawberry dress. I love her! Pictures to come later for that.

As usual, I spent so much time socializing, shopping, and organizing that I didn't do much else. Well, except make five cards. At first, I was really irritated with my lack of productivity. After all, I used images I had colored ages ago, so it's not like I had to take time to color (which takes me forever). My fellow crafters made me see that I got a lot done. I made new friends, organized some stuff that had been sitting as a mess for ages, and made cards for five soldiers to use when sending notes home. I decided that I'll take that and be happy about it.

Here are the cards I made (sorry if the pics are blurry or a bit dull. I didn't really focus on getting good shots before turning them in):

I deliberately didn't take much with me in the way of embellishments: just some ribbon, lace, twine, pearls and a tiny bit of bling. No flowers or anything that would add too much dimension. I tried to keep in mind that these cards will be shipped multiple times: once to the Soldier's Angels headquarters to be added to care packages, then to the soldier, then from the soldier to his/her family. I figured flat cards would be better for packing as well as durability. It's usually really hard for me to keep my cards so embellishment-free and flat, but today, it seemed to flow. I think being around all of those other crafters who were also there to support the soldiers and enjoy a day together might have turned on my mojo! What do you think? What makes your mojo flow?

Chloe is definitely a cutie!

I first saw this Elisabeth Bell image on her blog a while ago. I asked her if she was going to sell her as a stamp, and she told me that a company would have to "pick her up". Not too much later, Whimsy Stamps did just that! Chloe and the other Cottage Cuties came out just in time for my birthday. Imagine my excitement when my mom gave me a gift card to Whimsy that allowed me to get the first four cuties. Yes, I admit it. I was dancing all around and clapping my hands like the overgrown child that I am. And yes, I treated myself to the other two today, so now I will have them all. Anyway, despite the total and utter cuteness that is every single one of the Cottage Cuties (they're so aptly named), Chloe remains my favorite. Needless to say, I had to color her up first.

I tried some rolled roses with paper this time. Well, let's just say that they are SO MUCH easier with felt. The paper was just heavy and stiff. Perhaps I should get it slightly damp next time? But then wouldn't it stick together? Yeah, I think I'll just go back to felt. I colored sweet little Chloe with my copics (of course. Let's face it. I'm addicted). Here's a closer look at her adorable self:

Dontcha wanna go grab some apples with her? She reminds me so much of my niece Gabby, who also has flyaway hair, adorable freckles, and big eyes that grab you.

Papers are My Mind's Eye Howdy Doody (Miss Caroline). Love them! Everything else is pretty much from my stash. I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday: sketch (3/24)
Simon Says Stamp: bingo - lace, ribbon, flowers (3/28)
Stamptacular Sunday: use buttons. I used three (as flower centers) (3/24)
Elphine House: rain or shine. I chose sunshine! If you look closely, you can even see the little bit of yellow in the upper left corner of the image (sun rays peeking through the clouds; I used chalks to make the sky and rays).
Whimsy Stamps: Anything Goes (3/26)
Outlawz Monday Greeting Card: recipe challenge to use flowers, patterned paper, and ribbon (3/26)

As always, thanks for looking!