Well, that only took forever.

Finally! I'm getting back into the groove of scrapbooking again. I've been making so many cards over the last few months that I think I've only made one, maybe two pages for my own scrapbooks. In fact, the current page isn't even for a scrapbook; it's a shadowbox to hang on my bedroom wall.

I've been redecorating my house for a while now. I'm moving the efforts into my bedroom. I got my old furniture back from my mom's house. It's all white and all beat to heck and back, since it's been used by three girls/women and one guy since it was originally purchased in the late 1960's. I was going to replace the knobs, sand the furniture, and repaint it. However, I kind of like the beat up look it has. I might just leave it. I supplemented those two pieces with a headboard I bought online and an old elementary school desk that I found at an antique shop for $50. The desk became my nightstand.

Now that my furniture is set up, I've moved my efforts to the walls. They're already painted sage green, which I love. I found some artwork while vacationing in Florida. Check it out:

The walls look more olive in this pic, but they're actually sage. The artwork is from a talented guy named Alan Foxx. You can find more of his work here. The pictures have some green in them and actually look great on the walls. They pop just the right amount. Please look at his link, because this picture really sucks!

I bought one of his angels to go on an opposing wall, and made a shadowbox to hang with it. Here's the shadowbox layout. It only took me forever:

And here's how it looks actually inside the shadowbox frame, with a little Willow Tree figurine added:

The picture is one of me and Rick taken a year or two before he passed away. The tag says: "Memories are the most beautiful pictures our minds can paint, and nothing can ever erase them." The lace and doily are from my recent trip to Germany. The figurine and couple ornament are Willow Tree. Paper is Graphic 45 Le Romantique collection. I distressed the edges, then added white crackle paint. Flowers and butterflies are prima. I think that about covers it! Now I just need to get this sucker up on the wall. Maybe this weekend, or maybe not. I've got so much other crap to do! It'll get there eventually!

The only kind of cooking I like to do...

...is the kind you do with papers and embellishments!!! I hate cooking food and I pretty much suck at it, but I love recipe challenges for crafty stuff. Therefore, I was happy to hear that Kim's choice for her challenge at Guylou's Inimitability was nothing other than a recipe challenge. Fun, right? This one is called a "1-2-3" recipe challenge. So, here's what you need to do.
Make a card or project that includes the following:
1 - one lace or ribbon
2 - two patterned papers (some people call these PP or DP)
3 - three bits of bling (charms, pearls, rhinestones, etc)

Here's my example for you:

I used one pink grosgrain ribbon, two pink patterned papers from Prima, and three rhinestones. This is Louise and cupcake. Isn't she cute? I paper pieced her top but colored her skin and hair with copics. I used liquid applique as cupcake frosting.

You have until July 28th at 10 pm EST to enter the challenge. One random winner will get a $5 gift card to Guylou's Inimitability, as well as a chance to appear as a guest DT in a future challenge. What are you waiting for? Get cooking!

Insanely awesome friendships

Ok, so before I get started with my latest card post, I'll take a minute to wish everyone in the USA a Happy Independence Day! Thanks to our military, past and present, for all of their dedication, efforts, and sacrifices to maintain our liberty.

The fireworks will be starting here in an hour and a half or so. I am stoked. I love fireworks. It's also a bit sad, because I'd usually be watching them going off over the armory in Colonial Williamsburg. Rick and I would stay there for the holiday, walking to the armory from our hotel and setting up our little folding chairs and snacks. We'd settle in for an hour or two of people watching before the fireworks got started. Thinking about that kind of thing makes me miss him yet again (as if I don't do that enough times each day, already!). So, let's focus on good stuff, instead. I don't want to get all weepy-eyed and crap like that.

I spent all weekend getting a bunch of stuff done that has been sitting off to the side for ages. I hung shelves and pictures, scrubbed floors, went through my closet and made a pile for the Goodwill, and so on. I also took some time in there to be a bum, read my book, and color.

This time around, I colored "stepsisters" by Mo Manning. Mo is incredibly talented. All her images make me smile and/or tug at my heartstrings. This is one of the ones that makes me grin. These two just look so ornery. They're perfect for a card for a very close friend of mine, who happens to share my sarcastic sense of humor, understands my moods (and deals well with them), and is just a blessing in my life.

This image made me think of us. She's taller and slimmer than me with straighter hair, while I'm short, fat, and have curly/wavy hair. I admit it, we're both a little ornery, too! Papers are Basic Grey "hopscotch." I just noticed that the little teddy bear charm got hidden under the bow. Darnit. I don't feel like taking and uploading another pic, so just trust me that there's a cute teddy bear who hangs from the bow, okay? I added glossy accents and bling to the image, although the bling doesn't show up well. It's on the taller girl's shoes and both necklaces.

As usual, I colored the image with my copics. Here's the ones I used:

The sentiment says: "Our friendship is insanely awesome! You're insane and I'm awesome!!!"

Ok, I'm off to see what else I can get into before my family gets here to watch fireworks with me! Happy 4th!

We're seeing stars....and stripes, too!

It's time for a new challenge at Guylou's Inimitability! This time around, it's my wonderful friend Sara's turn to play hostess. With the 4th of July just around the corner, she made a wise choice. I think so, anyway. Our challenge this time around is to make a project using stars and stripes. Since not all of you out there in blogland are American (happy Canada day to my Canadian friends, by the way), I decided to make a card for celebration rather than patriotism. Besides, you all know I'll be making more patriotic cards again soon for my soldier letter writing stuff.

After my last card of over-embellie happiness, I tried to keep this one clean and simple. We all know how hard that is for me. I think it's a little TOO simple. However, having a deadline and virtually no time towards the end of this week pretty much means I didn't get to throw more things at it. That could change before long, since I haven't sent it out yet....

I don't know why the colors are glaringly yellow. I promise, they're not quite so flourescent in real life! LOL. Leah's dress is colored with a stardust pen, so it blings all over town. Anyway, why not give our latest challenge a shot? Make a card or other project using stars AND stripes. Upload it over at Guylou's Inimitability before July 14th at 10 pm EST and have the chance to win a $5 gift card to her digi stamp store as well as the chance to be on the guest DT in a future challenge. If you need more inspiration, check out the cards by my fab DT friends (links on my left sidebar). Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! And you knew I'd take another chance to say it (insert broken record comment here, LOL)....give thanks and praise, please, to our wonderful military who have made it possible for this country to remain free. They sacrifice every day for us, the least we can do is say, "thanks."

Yes, I admit it. I like to throw things...

...well, at my cards, anyway. I have this tendency to start with whatever image I've colored, find some coordinating papers, then just start throwing embellishments at that poor card until it can't take anymore. The paper sometimes ends up totally covered with pretties, but it's like an addiction. I can't stop. There's nothing more fun to me than digging through all of my embellishments to find yet another one that might work. Here's a case in point:

Quite some time ago, I colored this adorable image from Belles N Whistles, called "Clowning Around". Isn't she cute? Tonight, I finally decided to put her on a card, because she seemed perfect for the current Digi Bells challenge to make a birthday card. I'm also entering her in the Pink Elephant challenge 104 to make a circus card (thanks to Star for telling me about it!). This card started out with a basic light blue paper from Basic Grey's Hopscotch collection, matted onto dark brown bazzill cardstock. Then I put on three stripes of patterned paper from the Hopscotch collection. I didn't like that effect; it was too bland, so I added another piece of paper from the same collection. You see where this is going, right? The paper wasn't enough, so I popped the image with some dimensional dots. Still not enough. I added ribbon. Boring! Tossed on a sentiment, which made the other three corners look empty. I love Wild Orchid Crafts, so I had to add some flowers to fill a corner. Two corners were still empty. A quick punch with my EK Success scalloped corner punch almost fixed it, but not quite. More dimensional dots, and somehow, some buttons and cupcake stickers, netting, and a Sassafras Lass card made their way on there. I hope my poor clown did not end up buried. Nah, not possible, since Elisabeth Bell's images can't help but stand out. Her work is just too awesome to do anything else. And besides, this little clown needed some cute stuff to juggle, right? Yeah, yeah, that's it.

I'm tired from all of that tossing and throwing, plus trying to carry this heavy card to another room to get a decent picture (it does sit up surprisingly well, considering its weight). I'm off to watch So You Think You Can Dance, and then maybe I'll actually get some sleep tonight. Not likely, given my insomnia over the last few days, but I'm going to give it a shot!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy sunny birthday, Dale!

My friend Dale celebrated her birthday this past Monday, but I couldn't post the card til she got it in the mail. It finally showed up yesterday. I guess I'll look at that in a positive light and say she got to extend her birthday by a day that way!

Dale loves yellow and all things vintage, so I overloaded on the yellow, then threw in some vintage touches (an old button, some pins, and old lace). She also loves red, but I couldn't make that fly with the softer feel of this card. Oh, well.

She has been an amazing friend to me for the last few years that I have known her. She's got a great spirit, a fabulous sense of humor, and a loving heart. She's got to have tons of patience, too...she has little ones running around her house constantly! I love kids, but I don't know if I'd have the patience for that (which is one of the reasons why I didn't have any! LOL). She's such an involved mom and grandma. I love to watch her videos on youtube, where she's singing with her family or doing little lessons with her sweet granddaughter Emma. Each video makes me smile. Happy Birthday, Dale! LUG!!!

So, anyway, thanks once again for looking. Have a fabulous day!

Bling is a girl's best friend!

I love bling and it doesn't need to be in the form of diamonds (although I've not been known to turn them down!). Guylou is hosting a challenge over at CDAC to use bling, bow(s), and buttons. She provided this adorable freebie for us to use, too. You can get one yourself if you join CDAC. Check out the challenge here. I had fun making this card, although it took me a few days. I started it, let the stickles dry, then left it sit and sit and sit. I finally finished it up. Introducing little Dorothy and her sparkler!

Isn't she adorable? This image brings back many, many memories from when I was a kid. I remember summer picnics and playing with sparklers. We used to wave them around, writing words in the air with them. I can still smell the rather chemical, nasty smell they had as they burned. I can hear the sizzle and pop. It makes me smile to think back to those innocent days, where I just got to be a kid and not worry about anything but having fun.
Now, on to details about the card. I used Spellbinders Label #14 to cut around the image. I colored her with copics, then added red ink and outlines with a blue stardust pen and gold stickles. Dorothy's dress is polka dotted using a signo pen, and her sparkler blings courtesy of more gold stickles. While I had the stickles out, I outlined the background paper, too. The stars are cut with a Creative Memories star punch and I attached some star-shaped buttons with KI Gloo. I love that stuff. It holds practically everything. I got the cute red gingham ribbon at a store in Germany. It was what we used to call "five and dime"s here in the US. In other words, lots of fun stuff super cheap. Oh, yeah, I added some freckles to Dorothy's cute little cheeks using my Creative Memories journaling pen in brown.

When coloring the background, I wanted to get away from doing the solid thing (like a sky). Instead, I remembered how the ash from the sparklers used to fall all around us. It inspired me to use the dot technique. I used C00-C5 and then hit it with some silver sparkle from a stardust pen, too. Here's a close-up so you can see a bit better.
 This card is headed out to one of our soldiers in Afghanistan.
July 4th is fast approaching! I hope you have a fun Independence Day with lots of sparklers, fireworks, and yummy picnic food. Darnit, now I want a hamburger.....

Sweet summertime at Guylou's!

It's time for another challenge at Guylou's Inimitability and I am stoked because it's my turn to host! When Guylou (a.k.a "G") asked me to take a turn, I had so many ideas floating through the swiss cheese holes in my brain. With the help of my wonderful friends on G's DT, I narrowed it down and decided to do a sweet summertime challenge. What's this mean, you ask (and if you didn't ask, just pretend like you did, ok?)? It's simple. Make a project that includes BOTH of the following:
1. The word "sweet" somewhere on the front of the card. You can use it in any way you like. If you check out Guylou's store, she's even got some cute sentiments made by Tracy. That makes it easy peasy!
AND
2. Your project must have something to do with summer/warm weather. That doesn't really limit you too much. I mean, you can use so many ideas for that. You could focus on foods associated with summer like watermelon, ice cream, and even Maryland crabs! (yes, I have steamed crabs on the brain. I'm getting my first batch of the season this Saturday. Yum!). You could focus on warm weather places like the beach, or warm weather clothes like flip flops, bathing suits, shorts or sunglasses.

See, I tried to make it easy on you! As usual, G's DT came up with some cool ideas. Don't forget to check out their blogs to see (links in my sidebar on your left). For my card, I used a new image from G's store called "Leah Eating Watermelon." Leah is one of my favorite GI characters and I'm always so excited when G releases a new one.

I colored Leah with copics (no surprise there, since I don't tend to use any other medium anymore). My sentiment is from my friend Tracy. G's selling it in her store, along with several other "sweet" sentiments. Papers are My Mind's Eye "Home" collection. I got that cute rubber flower on clearance at Michael's. It's so bright and happy that I had to add it to this card. This is the first time I've created a background with chalk, but I went a little too light. It's actually clouds that I made by cutting out a cloud shape from white paper and using chalk to rub it onto the paper all through the background. In real life, it shows up as a very faint sky. I promise. LOL.

So, what are you waiting for? You have until June 30th at 10 p.m. EST to enter the challenge over at Guylou's Inimitability. To make it even sweeter, the winner of the challenge will receive a $5 gift card to spend in the GI store, plus a chance to be the guest DT for a future challenge. I can't wait to see how sweet you can make your summer project for Guylou's Inimitability!

One of the good things about dragons...

...is that they can be any color you want them to be, and no one bats an eye. I guess that's the good thing about any fantasy creature. They're pure imagination and you can let your creativity lead you where it may. Today, I decided my dragon should be purple. Maybe I was inspired by my niece, who graduates from elementary school tomorrow. No, I'm not implying the child is a dragon (although she did inherit some of her father's stubborn behavior and temper!). I just think of her every time I see purple, since it's her favorite color. Debating with a ten year old over the merits of pink versus purple is actually quite fun, or funny...whichever way you look at it. Anyway, here's the card:

The papers are Basic Grey. The tulle bow is actually purple, although it looks pink in this pic for some odd reason. I colored the dragon with my copics. I used stardust pens to highlight the scales and flames, as well as liquid applique to make the marshmallows look more realistic. The dragon is from Sweet Pea Stamps.
This card is for several challenges:
Sweet Pea Stampers - monochromatic. I chose purple
In a Sweet Pea Dream - wings
CES - inspired by a movie. My movie is Shrek! 

Now I need to get back to cleaning out what has become my storage room. It's supposed to be a room where I can chill out and read in my beanbag chair, surrounded by my fun collection of Steiff, Hermann, and hand-crafted artist bears. Right now, though, it's a hoarder's dream. It's just so overwhelming that I have been taking "breaks" from it all day to do things like make cards and read my book (unfortunately, not in my beanbag chair. There's no room for it in all of the boxes. So, for now, my couch is still the place to read). Have a wonderful Sunday!

For our soldiers, with gratitude

***this will be a short post because I am supremely irritated that I typed out a long post and blogger ATE it!!!***

My plan was to head to Busch Gardens today, but I woke up and wasn't in the mood. Shocking, since it's one of my fave places to go, but I just wasn't up for the drive and didn't feel like moving. I went back to bed, slept in til 9:00, bummed around with a book for a bit, then decided to make some cards. I got this great stamp from Hobby Lobby earlier this week, because it expresses my feelings towards are soldiers perfectly. The new sketch at Sweet Stop Sketches also seemed perfect for it. These cards are based after Sweet Sketch #112.

The stamp says: "Soldier, because of your bravery, courage, and sacrifice, liberty and freedom are still ours. We are deeply grateful."

When I bought the stamp, I came home and made this card with it, which I promptly mailed off to a soldier:

Please consider supporting groups like Soldier's Angels and Operation Write Home. Let's give back to those who sacrifice for us every day!