Creative Timing

Hello everyone!! I hope life is treating you all well. It has been one quick month here. I cannot believe it will be Memorial Day tomorrow. I have about 22 more days of work and then will be out for the summer. I cannot wait!!

We spent the day yesterday planting flowers and our vegetable garden. No photos right now. I always hate what my pots look like when I first plant them. They are so bare!! It has been a beautiful weekend-in the 70's, no humidity. Perfect for being outside.

This morning Chris, Charlotte and I went to Foxwoods Casino to check out the new outlet mall there. This is not a place I would go myself or even with a friend-it would be very dangerous. Eating, gambling AND shopping is a very bad combination for me. I like to do all three!!! We would be broke after I got done. Charlotte was able to find a bunch of things for herself at this mall. Charlotte had a bit of a growth spurt this year and could not wear any of the tops she had bought last summer. We never have time to shop together so it was nice for her to pick out things instead of me picking stuff out, bringing them home for her approval and then bringing back what she does not like. However, since we do not have a lot of time to shop, this is how we have to do it most of the time. Chris just hung out today, holding the bags and watching us spend. After, we had lunch at Junior's in the casino. Such a nice outing.

Today I am sharing a layout and a card that I created. I have not been in my craft room all that much, with the exception of putting away purchases that I SHOULD NOT have made. Once June hits, I do not have a paycheck coming in for a couple months so any kind of shopping will not be going on. I am hoping to create a lot of things with what I have.

The first project I am sharing is a scrapbook page of Charlotte. She had just gotten a hair cut, highlighted and a strip of her hair colored pink. This is not something we have done since. I was trying to get her to leave her hair down more by getting her hair styled but it did not work.

(Supplies)

I had fun layering a bunch of products on this. I usually plan my pages to death but for this, I just layered pieces of patterned paper, die cuts and also did a bit of stamping at the bottom. I just noticed that the "L" in the title is lower case and the rest is upper case. This is because I did not have any more "L's" on my sticker sheet. Sometimes you have to improvise! For a complete list of supplies, please access the link above.

The second project I am sharing is a birthday card. For some reason I am obsessed right now with making them. Not sure why but right now cup cake images are some of my favorite-in stamping and in real life. Who can resist a delicious home made cup cake? Not me!

I used a stencil and some green ink to create the polka dot background. The strips of paper were just scraps I had that matched the yummy cup cakes from Paper Trey Ink's "Baker's Dozen" set. I have to say that this cup cake set is one of my favorites. There are so many yummy images to color in!!

I used some glossy accents on the rose, strawberry and cherry, as well as clear Wink of Stella on the cup cake wrappers. Hard to see from this photo.

I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday and enjoying themselves. I thank you for taking the time to stop by!!

Supplies for Birthday Card:

Stamps-Paper Trey Ink

Paper-Stamper's Select White by Paper Trey Ink, Scraps

Ink-Memento "Tuxedo Black" and Hero Arts "Soft Green"

Dies-My Favorite Things (circle) and Paper Trey Ink (cupcakes)

Other-Sequins, Glossy Accents, Wink of Stella, Doodlebug Designs Twine "Bubblegum," Foam Adhesive, Big Shot

Throwback Back Thursday

Yesterday felt like a Thursday so today was a disappointment to me!! Not really but it was LOONNNGGG. I am so ready for school to be out and summer to kick in.

Chris was away until last night so I watched the Kurt Cobain documentary "Montage of Heck" on Monday night. It was really interesting but disturbing at the same time. It was an intimate portrait of the MAN Kurt was and how he got there. As I was listening to his parents speak of his childhood and the things that went on, all I could think of was why did they not get him some professional help? He so needed some guidance and maybe his drug use or his tragic death could have been prevented. It was very clear that his parents did not know what to do. It was just so sad and I have been thinking about it for the last two days. I do not usually ruminate on things like this either. I just hate drug use, and heroin in particular. No matter how crappy life is, taking drugs does not make the crap go away. In fact, it makes it worse. The stuff is still there when you come down. Perhaps it is because I am a control freak and being "high" has never really appealed to me that I feel this way. The whole movie just made me sad.

On that lovely note, today I am sharing a card I created using an extremely OLD Stampin Up! stamp set called "Spring Bouquet." I made this card to go into the set of cards my friend bought for her mother.

I used watercolors to color the image in and then die cut it into a square. I mounted the square onto a "Soft Stone" background and then used strips of colored card stock on the top and bottom.

The whole design was really simple. I often have a hard time when I color images like these to know what to do with the panels. I rarely make a one layer card when I watercolor because I always make a mistake and do not want to have to throw the whole thing out.

That is all for now. I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a great day!1

Happy Mother's Day and a Card

Happy Mother's Day!! I am hoping that you are all enjoying your day being a mother or with your mother.

Today I am laying low and it is HEAVEN!! Later on I am going to get my gift from my daughter-a photo shoot. Now that she is a teen, Charlotte never lets me take her photo anymore. She doesn't mind sending selfies through snapchat but refuses to let me use my camera. What is up with that? So I told her yesterday that her gift to me would be for me to take her somewhere and get some shots. I think she thought I was kidding!!

Yesterday I took some time in my craft room while I was doing piles of laundry. I had a little time to color a new Lawn Fawn set I bought a couple weeks ago. Below is just the start of the coloring. I wound up fixing up the shading after this photo.

This is how I usually color in stamps like this. I stamp a bunch on a piece of white card stock, leaving enough room to die cut. Then when I want to make a card, I have them all ready.

These were the Copic colors I used.

I also created a card to enter into three challenges.

I used CASE this Sketch #122 for the overall placement of images on this card.

The background I created using Winnie and Walter's "Scenery: Rectangled and Triangled" stamp set. I stamped it in Paper Trey Ink's "Soft Stone" and "Lemon Tart" ink. The color scheme was from this weeks "Fusion Card Challenge." The background is not perfect but I was not going for that look. This card was supposed to be fun!

I die cut the stamped panel using a Winnie and Walter die and layered it onto "Lemon Tart" card stock. I then adhered some die cut banners and a pre-made die cut for the sentiment strip.

I think the addition of the leaves really stepped the card up a bit.

I know the colors and the sketch were an inspiration for this card. However, the MAIN challenge that inspired me was Winnie and Walter's "Geometric" challenge. Run on over and read Taheerah Atchia "Gossip Column" and take the challenge!!

So off to get my darling ready for her photo shoot. I thank you for stopping by today!!

Supplies:

Stamps-Winnie and Walter "Scenery: Rectangled and Triangled," Paper Trey Ink "Fillable Frames #5"

Dies-Winnie and Walter "Essentials: Katharine Cutaways," My Favorite Things "Fishtail Flags"

Ink-Paper Trey Ink "Soft Stone," "Lemon Tart," and "Smokey Shadow"

Paper-Paper Trey Ink-White and Lemon Tart

Other-Doodlebug Design Sequins, Big Shot Machine, Foam Adhesive, and misc die cut from stash

Wow!! So excited!!

Just a quick post today. I have been in my scrap room all day. Too bad I have only created a few things. I am so slow!!

Anyway, just here to say that I was the CASE Playground winner over at Stamplorations for April. I am in shock!!

Here is the original post with all the details.

This was the first challenge I had entered in a long time. I have been so busy just picking stuff off my desk to clean it up and haven't had the wherewithal to enter.

Thank you Stamplorations!! If you have not been over there, run. They have fabulous challenges and the design team ROCKS for inspiration.

Hope you all have a great night!!

Monday Monday

Happy Monday! Today was a warm and beautiful day in Connecticut. I think we are going to wind up skipping spring, though and going right into summer.

Today I want to share a few cards that I have created but have never shared here. I need to be a better blogger!!

Birthday cards seem to be my theme as of late. Not sure why because as every one of my relatives will tell you, I am the WORST at sending them out on time. Um, as I am writing this, I believe that I need to send a card out to my niece! Anyway, here are two cards I created using the same die.

(Supplies)

I chose to do this in green so it could be more masculine in nature. This die is from Taylored Expressions and I ADORE it. It can be used in so many ways. I also used a stamp from Technique Tuesday for the sentiment. Like I said, I miss a ton of birthdays so belated cards are a must for my stash!!

For my second card, I used the same Taylored Expressions die but went in a whole different direction.

(Supplies)

I chose to make a shaker card for this one, using gold and silver with white and black as accents. This card is relatively flat and I made a pocket to hold the sequins rather then use foam.

This might not be everyones cup of tea but it was SO FUN to create. The first shaker card that I have been proud of. Usually I just want to throw them away.

The happy die cut is a Mama Elephant die and it is my new favorite. I also had a blast using patterned acetate by We R Memory keepers. Isn't this an elegant and festive card?

Well, I thank you for stopping by tonight. Have a great Tuesday!!