What a Long Month!!

March has kicked my butt. I have not posted in two weeks and this is not due to my lack of creativity. In fact, life has caught up with me. I have had to make a lot of choices and unfortunately, blogging has been on the back burner. 

My husband has traveled every week this month, making me the only parent at home. This would be easy if my fourteen-year-old was not being, well, a teen-age girl. I miss the little girl who LOVED to be with her mother and had the sweetest little giggle. In her place is a moody teen that does what she pleases and thinks I know NOTHING. Char's grades have not been stellar because of her lack of passing in her homework that I KNOW SHE HAS DONE. Who does that? This is when I wish my mother was still alive because I would be buying her presents like mad. She deserves an award for having had to put up with her four children. Each one of us gave her all the gray hairs that she dyed faithfully every month. I wish I could pick her brain right now for some ideas. Sigh. I know this stage will pass but it has been a tough.

To deal with stress I have chosen to get to the gym as much as I can. I hate to exercise but it really helps my brain. I recommend this to anyone that is dealing with a lot of stress. Endorphins rule!!

On top of that, my youngest sister broke her ankle and I have tried to be there for her. It isn't a heck of a lot because she lives twenty minutes away but I have done what I could. I feel bad that it has not been more. 

In between all this, I have been trying to keep up with all your lovely blogs using Bloglovin. Some days are better then others and I apologize if I have missed anything. 

I have been trying to get back into scrapbooking this month. It comes and goes for me. Right now we are without  a printer and it is killing me. I like to journal and though I can hand write some of it, often it is too lengthy for me to do so. I was able to do two pages about our trip to Europe this past summer. They are just a snapshot, literally, of two events. 

My daughter HATES this photo below but it sums up something we did while in London. Please do not judge my lovely (not!) printing.

(Supplies)

I cannot believe I am even posting this second page. As a rule, I do not like having my photo taken. However, I have made a conscious effort throughout Charlotte's life to make sure that I do get in the photos. I often do not like them because I think I am fat, or my hair is messy, or I am just not feeling it but I do it so she will have them to look at when I am no longer around. 

I lost my mother at 23 and I have very few photos of her. My mother did not like to have her picture taken. Especially the last five years of her life after she lost her eye due to cancer. I do not want my daughter to go through her scrapbooks and only see photos of herself. 

On the page below, Charlotte took the photo with my I-phone. It is of Chris and I with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Is it the best? No. Sometimes it isn't perfection that counts.

(Supplies)

That is all for today. I will not bore you any longer. I hope you have a great week!!

30 Days of Coloring Challenge "Sympathy Card"

Hello Peeps!! Just a quick post today sharing a sympathy card I created for a co-worker whose mother passed away last week.

I tried the "no line" water coloring technique for this card.

I started with a panel that I die cut out of watercolor paper. I stamped the butterfly from WPlus9's "Flora and Fauna 2" stamp set in Memento's Desert Sand ink. I then used Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor paints to paint in the butterfly. When the painting was completed, I splattered purple and bits of black paint over the card front.

After the panel dried, I stamped the sentiment in Royal Velvet ink. I then adhered the card front to a Royal Velvet A2 top folding card that I created by cutting a piece of 8 1/2" by 11" piece of card stock in half.

My last step was to adhere Pretty Pink Posh clear colored sequins randomly around the card front. For some reason, they are picking up the pinky color from the butterfly in this photograph. They are not like this in real life.

Since I sell a lot of my cards at work, I do not usually stamp on the inside. This might seem weird but my co-workers prefer it this way. They would rather write something personal inside. However, since I am actually sending giving this card to my friend, I stamped an inside panel..

I used two smaller butterflies from the "Flora and Fauna 2" set, as well as a sentiment from  My Favorite Things "Clearly Sentimental-About Sympathy" stamp set.

I really like how this came out and made one other card panel using this technique which I will show case some other time. I still have not made a card out of it yet.

Well, that is all for today. I hope your day is filled with sunshine.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Playing with Ink and Other fun Techniques

It is Monday. I am hoping all of you are not late to work today. It was just starting to be light out in the morning and now it is dark again. Very hard to get up!!

This Saturday I spent the day playing in my craft room. I thought I would share some of the fun techniques I tried.

First, I tried a "smoosh" technique with Distress inks. I used a craft mat and inked it up with Peacock and Shabby Shutters Distress ink. I then used a mist bottle to spray water over the ink.

I dipped three die cut panels into the mess to create some fun backgrounds. (The panels were die cut from watercolor paper. You can use a heavier card stock for this technique but watercolor paper drys flat.)

You can either dry these using a heat gun or just set them aside to air dry. That is what I did because it gave me a chance to create some cards while I was waiting.

After the panels dried, I stamped some images in black from a new Technique Tuesday stamp set I bought primarily for the sentiments.

"Umpteenth Birthday" can be used for a lot of the cards I send to my friends now that we are all getting older. Aren't they fun?

I then masked the cake and stamped the "Enjoy all the Fuss!" sentiment in gray dye all over the panel. (The panel was die cut into a square in the photo below due to user error!!)

I am in love with cards that use this technique or newsprint as a background. I have some ideas stewing in my brain.

The next technique I played with is "coloring" parts of an image using Stickles. Okay, I am kind of crazy but I LOVE my glitter glue. I figured this counted as one of the "30 Days of Coloring" Challenge" that I am following along with over at The Daily Marker Blog.

On the cake, I only filled in the sprinkles with the Stickles. (I apologize for the blurry photo. I was taking them really quick while I was creating-a bad combination. I have no patience!!)

On a the second panel, I colored in accents on some presents.

The above photo was taken when the glue was wet. The dried panel is okay but not as vivid. I will definitely be experimenting a bit more with this technique in the future. I think it is better to use in small areas, though. The glue shrinks as it dries.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it isn't my usual. I used to write step-by-step articles using various products for Scrapbook.com and I miss doing that. This is kind of how they went.

Have a great day!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

CASE this Sketch #113, Cupcake Inspirations Color Challenge and 30 Day Color Challenge with WPlus9 "Unforgettable"

Hello, hello, hello!! I hope you all are enjoying this fabulous Sunday. I am trying to wake up from the lovely day light savings time change. I do not like the "spring ahead" mode. I am a horrible sleeper and this just kills me to lose an hour of sleep.

This week was super busy for me. Chris was away so I became the taxi to everything under the sun. Not to mention that Charlotte was sick. She is better now, thank goodness.

Let me tell you, I think all single parents should get an award. I don't know how you do it day in and day out. I would be curled up in a fetal position every night, crying my eyes out. I am one of those super sensitive people that not only need my alone time but if I don't get it, I am absolutely miserable.

Yesterday I was able to spend HOURS in my crap, I mean craft room. Right now it is HUGE mess. You know how I periodically challenge myself to use "what is on my desk?" Well, this is what my desk looked like yesterday.

I should take photos of my desk today because it is worse, if you can believe that. I have a mixture of new products that I have no where to put (I need to spend some money on organizers and no more supplies), as well as things I have been coloring. I have a new ink organizer that I received for my birthday but our printer broke and I need to make labels. I am waiting to transfer THREE drawers full of ink pads that will make room for some of this stuff. Anyone willing to come over to help me clean all this can play with anything they want to!!

Even though this is so messy, I was able to make five cards yesterday, and part of a sixth, yesterday My mojo was flowing! In the midst of all the activities I had this week, I was able to color some of the elephants from Wplus9's "Unforgettable" set as part of the 30 Days of Coloring Challenge. I just had to use one on a card.

Isn't Ella adorable? Okay, she might look like she is not grounded but I figured she is floating in the air. I used CAS(E) this Sketch #113 for the card design and Cupcake Inspirations Color Challenge (chartreuse, white and a pool color) for the rest of the card. Okay, Ella is gray but I am not counting her.

 

I started off this whole card by using the smoosh method to make the panel behind Ella. Laura Bassen uses this all the time to make backgrounds on her cards. I used this method YEARS ago but did it slightly differently then Laura. I tried her method but I am not going into it today. I have a photo tutorial later on this week with all the details. I added some misting to this panel as well because I wanted the green to be a bit more vibrant. I also stamped some bubbles from WPlus9's "Bubble Talk" stamp set in two places with gray ink

Anyway, I mounted the die cut with fun foam onto a top folding A2 card size that was covered with a scrap of patterned paper. I then added the balloon, Ella and some sequins to complete the card.

I love, love, love this card. I have a few ideas up my sleeve for a couple other cards with this stamp set but that will be for another day.

I think this post is long enough. I thank you for your patience and for stopping by to browse. Have a fabulous night!!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper-Lily Bee Designs "Kite Strings"

InLinkz.com