Beads, Birds, and Happiness

I must have been thinking about all those birds who will be moving into the bird houses and eating from all the bird feeders here on our property because I created and created today but BIRDS was the theme.

Today at SCS www.splitcoaststampers.com the sketch challenge was to center a rectangle and have a strip running over the image. Well, I apparently am not the most observent of people, and when I looked at the sketch I immediately ran to the craft room to create. I used a most adorable digi bird image from www.doodlepantry.com. I pulled out all my paper, cut my pieces, colored my image, and glued it all down. THEN... I opened up the link again so I could attach my card to the gallery and OOOOPS! I stuck my pieces down wrong... my stripe went under, not over...

Don't you just hate it when that happens... that means more crafting... more stamping... more creating... awww shucks!

So, back to the craft room I went. I love this image so I had to reuse it. I reprinted it and colored it. This time I made the little birdy a robin, because I like them and they are so cute. I cut all the pieces this time but I needed that band to run over the image and not under, so I printed the sentiment over and over again in a line, colored with my colored pencils and cut it out to look like a ribbon. I thought the layout needed some edge punch detail like the first one, but the same punch just didn't look right, so I used the lace edge punch. The background is a cuttlebug embossed piece I received as a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) and thought I would use one of these wonderful bits of love on this card. So after I screwed up on the first one, I thought this one needed a little bit of spectacular. I used these little mini clear beads to cover the water in the bird bath so it looks like water! I love this technique... and while adhereing these, I came up with another idea for these little beads... watch for that in the future! After all that long winded mumbo jumbo, here is the finished product.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look. Have a most wonderful day and I'm wishing you THIS kind of Happy too!

On a May day

The leaves on the hill have almost all filled in, and I can’t wait for the privacy it offers us when we can no longer see the road, and the people on the road can no longer see us. Outside all there is, is green and it looks so fresh and clean. It was going to start raining so the sun wasn't making the green glow in this picture like it does in real life.

I can't wait for all the birds to move into their house. There are about a dozen or so all over the property and my favorites are the two story my Opa built, the red long house Alex bought me (and we painted), the mushroom looking ceramic one, and the little house Alex made with Clarence last summer.

I have lots on my to-do list this week including class finals. Attending college online is a different type of educational experience. There are so many writing projects and keeping my studies on track has been the hardest part. This is not only a learning experience for me, but it was a complete family educational experience. At first I would try to get my work done while the family was awake. With all the questions, noises, and constant interruptions, I struggled. After a few weeks I was certain I was not meant to learn outside the traditional classroom. With lots of homework under my belt, and being half way through my program, we have all learned exactly what I need to do to finish my homework. So now I wait until the kid is in bed and Craig is at work. The house is quiet and I can concentrate.

Last week Craig hit a deer with my Tahoe. He should have missed it but, it happened. No one was hurt and the truck made it home. We called the same guy the neighbor suggested last time when it wouldn’t start. Mike drove all the way over here, about 30 miles or so, took a look at it, made a list, and took off to the scrap yard. He called the other night and he FOUND ALL THE PARTS at his buddy’s junk yard… ooops I mean scrap yard. He should be picking it up by the end of the week. I’m glad he found the parts so quick, we are supposed to be at a family reunion about 350 miles away in June, and so the Tahoe is a necessity. All I asked was for it to be legal and safe, Mike thinks he can make her all pretty again too!

I let Alex skip school today, not intentionally, but he was home all day. No, he’s not sick, and no, this doesn’t happen very often, but we were all up late because of the hot weather. He didn’t fall asleep until about 2am, and I wasn’t about to wake him up at 6:30 to get ready for school, so I let him sleep. It is still hot and sticky here, but he will be going tomorrow because he just drives me crazy when he is here all day. And summer vacation is right around the corner… eeek!!!

I thought I’d share one of my midnight creations with you today. Last night I created and created because I’m apparently procrastinating, I do have a final and some housework I could/ should be doing, and I ended up making a funny but adorable breast cancer card. I thought the melons were so fitting for this, and my Mom will adore having this card sitting on her desk. She works at a State run Veterans center and displays many of my cards there for everyone to enjoy. I usually do the cancer walk thank you card for her, the children’s miracle network cards, and a card for any of the many other causes she supports.

This card is real simple, just stamped the melons (from stamps etc) 4 times using a grey ink pad made for clear stamps and colored using colored pencils and baby oil with blending nubs. There are three melons hanging on the front of the card with jump rings from the ribbon. The pink check and the white are punched using Martha Stewart border punches. That cute pink centered daisy trim was stuck on with glue dots.  The designer paper is from a Martha Stewart stack. The little sentiment Priority is stamped in the corner. The inside is where this card makes its purpose known.

On the inside:                                                                                                                    

I created the saying on my computer and printed it directly on the patterned designer paper. I added the little strip with the border punch to finish it off, and placed the final melon on next to the sentiment.

Is it Summer already?

I believe we were fighting with frost about three weeks ago but today we are expecting 100 degree plus temps. I'm chalking it up to global warming. What to do on a hot sticky day? Craft of course. The sticky hot air woke me at about 3:30 this morning. I tossed and turned for over an hour before I gave up. I checked my to-do list and saw I owe some postage holders for a swap so I thought it was a good time to create them. I started with a mini file folder and stamped two butterflies and the words Art mail on the folders. Then I broke out the trusty zig and tombow markers and colored the butterflies in. I added a metal dot and then outlined the image in the light blue. I ran to the computer to see exactly how many and what the requirements were because I was only looking at 6 single layered holders... eeek, the site says 6 +1 and two layers... hmmm... what to do? I know, ask the kid... he always has good ideas... "Alex, what am I going to do? These are supposed to be two layers and I only have one." He answered without even thinking, just put another butterfly on top Mom... so I stamped the seventh folder, colored the butterflies, placed the dot, stamped the words, and then I stamped, colored and cut out the seven additional butterflies. Colored them with a little gel pen between the yellows and oranges and I'm calling them done.  Now to finish the other 7 that I committed myself to...

I'm BAAAAAAACK

WOW! I haven't posted anything since February and it is May... what have I been doing????

I think it is a combination of school, being a mom, wife, and my new addiction, SCS splitcoaststampers.com. I have even let my virtual farm and restaurant die because of finding and falling in love with SCS.

I have always had a love affair with paper, even as a little girl, I always loved paper. Today I loaded a card I made for Joey (oh would he be mad if he knew I still call him that), he is in boot camp and has been away from his family for a while now. I thought he needed a little encouragement, so I created a card using the SCS sketch.

One of the comments I received from PrincessHeather, suggested I enter this in the treehouse stamp challenge for masculine cards. Well, this gave me a reason to update my blog. Now, off to see how to enter the challenge... wish me luck!