home again

and am I tired!
What a great time I had in Savannah.
Such a beautiful city-we even got to meet David Venable from QVC the night that we had dinner at Paula Deen's! It was wonderful meeting all my CX friends in real life. We had such adventures! The South is really a trip- totally different culture from California-that is for sure!

Gotta Crop!

Packing up today for my trip to Savannah tomorrow. 2 fun days of sight-seeing in historic Savannah and then 4 glorious day of scrap-booking with my CX friends.
See you all next week!

Holy Cow

Just revisiting an old card design here but swapping in another stamped image instead-this time using a cow. I wanted my customers at my workshop today to get a feel for working with the Scor-pal. This embossed grid design is a nice intro to using it.

Card du jour

Here's a little something that the girls will be making at my workshop tomorrow.
It was heavily influenced by a card on page 13 in The Angel Company catalogue.

I want to thank my SBS sister Michelle for tuning me into the beautiful stamp set "butterbees and more". It was one of those cases where I totally missed it in the cattie and then saw a sample on her blog and loved it, asked where she got it, and she said TAC and I said "oh gee duh-I am an Angel too you would think that I would know that!" LOL
I stamped then masked off the bird and used the new script background stamp with it. And then used some of the filigree swirlie stamps in the same set on the corners.

Otto The Wonder Kitten

Here's a pic of the REAL Otto The Wonder Kitten.

It's just uncanny how much the widget (see fuzzy animated fellow to your right!) resembles him.

He's not really a kitten anymore.He's actually 2 but he is the baby of the household and enjoys all the special privileges that go along with that namely being transported about in loving arms and lots of extra cuddles..

Yes another doggie card...

It was going to be a cat card until Otto the Wonder Kitten, who was sitting in my lap at the time ,decided to get spooked and skewer my legs with his evil lil claws- at that point the cat stamp went back in the box and the dependable doggie took its' place!

I got this great little tablet of Pet Papers from Die Cuts with a View- all printed on scrumptious thick card stock with glitter and glossy accents. It was on sale for 40% off at Jo-anns and had I to break them in.

The doggie is from Whipper Snapper Designs
Colored in with PrismaColor Pencils and Gamsol.

pretty little things

Well here is my second bead project that I created. I took a little detour coming home from picking up my car at the Toyota dealership last Thursday and $10 later I had all these pretty blue and green dichroic glass beads.It was on the way home- honest,it was!And hey $10 is not much compared to how much I used to pay for Cookie Lee jewelery and that CL stuff ALWAYS broke on me!!!

I talked to my bead teacher and she moved my first class up to this Thursday-I think that she was getting concerned that I was charging ahead and might not be doing things the proper way LOL(Sounds like when I taught myself digital scrapbooking-I was so amazed when I learned the RIGHT way from Jessica Sprague!)

Anyhoodle-I was back at Joann's yesterday- they are having a HUGE bead sale this week- basically 40% off all beads, tools, and findings. I stood in that bead aisle for prolly a good hour and a half with my mental hamster wheel just a spinnin' away.I got my first Swarovski crystals and some gorgeous Czhech glass beads as well.
It's torture having to wait until Thursday to play with them though!

Happy Birthday

My Mom would have been 81 today and to honor her memory I have decided to give a monetary gift to the Alzheimers Organization every year in her name.She was such an extraordinary woman- intelligent ,strong , resilient, funny, gregarious, and oh yes- so very artistic. Thank you Mom for all that you taught me. I think of you every day and carry you in my heart.
Since you are not here for the card-I am going to give it to your grand daughter Sarah Rose instead.:::wink and a hug:::

News Hound

Here's another whipper snapper stamped image RAK that I received.
Colored in with Prismacolor pencils and blended w/ gamsol.
The newsprint PP is from 7 Gypsies.
And the little file tab is a SU! punch.

Blue Bird of Happiness

Isn't this guy a cutie?
I got 3 envies full of Whipper Snapper stamped images from SCS WishRAK while I was away over Spring break.This was the first one that I have played with . I colored him in with Prisma Pencils and blended with Gamsol.
The patterned paper is something called Starfish Dreams-I had never heard of it before but it was on sale this week at Mike's (6 sheets for a buck!)
I still have to really figure out how to use my Nestabilities dies with my Big Kick. I keep experimenting with how many layers and on what tab to cut at ,to shim or not to shim etc!I can get it to cut but I am not happy with the embossing yet. And Once I figure it out-I need to write it down-I had it so it worked great once- now I can't remember and can't find the instructions-ACK!

oh no- trouble!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
That's the sound of me careening down the slippery slope of yet another new hobby!
Last Fall, my friend Nancy taught me how to knit,,, well I finished my very last fuzzy boa scarf for the SouthEast Crop yesterday-#18!

So now it's on to something new- I have been intrigued by beading for a long time but have resisted it's sirens call.
On Sunday,I set up an appt. for lessons with one of the old Mike's teachers on the 20th but found myself too impatient for that even and picked up a kit at Mike's for $14 that had the pliers ,the wire, the tray and some beads in it. This necklace is my first project- not too shabby if I say so myself!

Happy Thoughts

I really liked how this card turned out. I made it as a DT project for ASB. It features papers that were made by the board owner Anne- how clever is she?!

I have to say that this is not a color combo that I would normally gravitate to but I do like the interplay of the rose with the soft plum.

The round stamps from SU! are a lot of fun to play with- I love sticking things on top of other things!

The pink ribbon is on sale at Mike's this week - 5 spools for a buck- I picked up 10 spools yesterday.I like the little looped edge on it.

Fluffle Alert!

I just got an envie stuffed full of Fluffles from a swap ... so prepare for a Fluffle onslaught!
I colored this dude in with my Tombows and added a little shimmer to the bow.
I used a fun round stamp from SU! for the sentiment and layered some Primas on it.
Cuddlebugged the background and added a few different scraps of patterned paper.

I cannot wait....

until the end of this month! That's when I will be in Beautiful Savannah, Georgia for the CreativExpress South East Crop.Several of the board members have put together the most fantastic weekend for us there (Thank you Bunny, Leslie, and Stacy!)
We will be staying in the cottages at Fort McAllister- a historic state park for a 4 day weekend of cropping.
I am actually flying in a few days early so that I can sight see in the historic district of the Savannah. I booked my self into a historic bed and breakfast and am so looking forwards to just strolling about with my camera in hand taking pix of all the Savannah sights. My friend Stacy gave me lots of info for boning up on Savannah. I have read "midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and got all the movies from NetFlix that she recommended. (Can you ever watch Forest Gump too many times? Naw-I don't think so!)
She even arranged a dinner for us at Paula Dean's restaurant- The Lady and Sons.
As you can see I have my cropping attire- don't ask about the Bunny ears-it's a long story! LOL And am busily putting together page kits to take with me.

Getting back into the groove

I am finally starting to settle back in after our week away.
I am still super tired and my knees hurt from all those campus tours (but I am nowhere as near bad off as our lil' kitten friend here!)

I am eagerly anticipating the Cricut sale at Mike's this Sunday. I will be there before they open so I can make a mad dash for the Paper Dolls Dress Up Cartridge. I want it sooooo badly!I did get to borrow my friend Nancy's Strecth your Imagination cart. this week and have got to say that I don't love it as much as I thought that I would have. So that was a good thing-it'll save me some $$

I linked over to the Peachy Keen stamps web site from the Cricut site today- Golly- do they have some CUTE stamps- has anyone ordered from them before?
I used to have a set of paper doll face stamps from CTMH but I have been all through my stamp cave looking for them so I can only assume that I must have sold them.I guess I'll have to break down and buy some more from Peachy Keen- aw shucks.

ahhhh...

That felt good-my first card in 2 weeks!
I got this grouchy old broad in a stamped image swap-I have no idea who the maker is but she makes me laugh.
I colored her in with Tombow markers and Lyra WaterColor Crayons. Added some crystal lacquer to her specs and used a silver metallic pen on her house coat buttons.
The round sentiment is from Autumn Leaves.