Wintery Thanks and Snowpeople, too!

 Hi there!

Oh golly, it's hard to believe we are at the end of January, 2016! Happy New Year just a tad bit late. I hope it's treating you well so far. Life hasn't slowed down much since our Winter Break ended. From time to time I've managed to get a card or two made, but my computer is giving me fits these days and getting them edited has been problematic. Sometimes just navigating the internet has been an issue as well. I had some time today and edited them all at one time. I hope I don't have any problems posting this. We've tried a couple of fixes, but the issue remains so obviously those weren't actually fixes. Sigh. Gotta love technology.

Anyway, onto the cards. They are copies of cards that I have seen in blogland and liked. I've added my own little tweaks.

Here's the card I copied. (sorry it's so dark, I tried my best to lighten it up)

My tweaks: colored with colored pencils and the pattern paper. I sent this is in the mail and could hear the beads shaking. Wasn't sure if the post office would get all worried at the noise, but it got to the recipient, so all is good. :)

Here's the card that inspired these two cards.

My tweak: I used glitter paper from DCWV. The snowflakes and thanks die-cut are sparkly even if you can't tell in the photos. I softened the stripes big time on the top card. The second one, I was playing around with the color combo for a different card, but I didn't like the end result for that card, so I used it here and felt it worked really well. 

The new year has been pretty good to us. I never mentioned it here on the blog, but my husband got laid off from his job way back in April of last year. Anyway, after all these months, he recently  accepted a job offer. Yay! While he hasn't started just yet, he should be back to work soon.  The girls are as busy as ever. Amy's Winterguard had an evaluation performance last weekend. They got positive and encouraging comments from the judges on their show so far. We also worked Bingo last weekend. Jessica has been busy with clubs and is going to a dinner theater tonight with one of them. This week has been filled with Girl Scout meetings as well. It's always something. This mom is doing her best to keep up! 

:)

That's a very brief update on us. I thank you very much for continuing to stop by from time to time. 

I so appreciate the visit! 

See you again soon!

Hugs.

It's So Sparkly, Too!

Hi There!

I hope you had a lovely holiday and are ready for the start of a brand-spanking new year. Our Christmas was quiet, but nice. It's been quite nice to have some downtime. Wish it was a smidge warmer, but it's winter, so I guess I can't complain too loudly.  Amy got a new Wii U game called Yoshi's Wooly World. It's pretty neat because all the graphics look like the things are created by being crocheted or knitted-if you watch the little video you'll see what I mean. The girls are much, much better at the game than I am, but I keep playing, dying, and laughing like a loon.

Today I managed to do a little playing in my crafty space. Here's what I came up with. I didn't "copy" anyone here (and you may be able to really tell). I pulled out a bunch of snowmen and snow related products and told myself to just play. This is what I ended up with. There's lots of sparkle!

The stamp set is Lawn Fawn's Ready, Set, Snow. The pattern paper (which you don't see used too often these days) is Doodlebug's Frost Friends (as are the snowflakes). The glittery base is glittered fun foam from Michaels. There's a Hero Arts background swirly stamp used. I remember being so enamored with that stamp a couple of years ago and I had to have it. Of course, I've not used it nearly enough. Today, I pulled it out, stamped it with Versamark ink and poured a silvery sparkly embossing powder from Michaels over it and heat embossed. Then I tried adding some distress ink (Broken China and Milled Lavendar) to create a sky. I probably should have done the inking first and then the embossing, but I was really playing and going with the flow. The images are colored with my colored pencils and today is the first time I played the purple pencil. It's gorgeous!! 

Edited to add: My friend, Carol, of Just Me:c left me a comment about a challenge on the Simon Says Blog here. She felt I should enter this card into the challenge. I decided to go ahead and try it. Thanks for the information and the link, Carol. We'll see what happens. There are a lot of entries. Great place for inspiration, that is for sure. :)

That's it from me for right now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Tags and a Santa

 Hi There!

Imagine my complete surprise  early this morning to get a phone call from my manager telling me that schools are closed today! A forecasted snowstorm came through overnight, but the totals weren't supposed to be very impressive. I hadn't even turned on my tv because our district very rarely ever calls a snow day.  Usually when I do check the news, it's only to be disappointed. I think there must be 7 inches out there right now. Whoo hooo for a completely unexpected free day! Now I can try to catch up on getting ready for the holiday. I'm now doubly glad that I pushed myself to get the packages I needed to mail out to the post office yesterday. :) 

My assistant manager asked me if I could make some tags for little gifts she is making for some of our co-workers at the school. She is making homemade caramel popcorn and we got to test her first batch yesterday~yummy! I agreed and immediately wanted to make snowglobe tags using Lawn Fawn's Ready Set Snow and Let's Toboggan Together stamp sets. I even splurged and bought the dies to cut the snowglobes and boy am I glad I did. Made creating the globes ever so much easier!

I spent a good chunk of time on Saturday afternoon coloring the images and fussy cutting the critters out. Sunday afternoon was spent creating the tags. 

Here's how they turned out. They are colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. The hat bands and snowballs are "winked" as well. 

Here are close ups for your viewing pleasure (I hope).

I  actually made 2 of each of the designs above!

 I decided to add the ribbon in case the recipients wanted to use them as an ornament. 

They were a bit more work than I anticipated, but so worth the effort in the end. 

Here's the Santa I made. Actually I crocheted two of these and I'm really bummed that the backside photos didn't work for whatever reason. I can't re-take the photos because they are in the mail. 

Anyway, I saw this in the December issue of Crochet World. 

This Santa works as an ornament and as a gift card holder! When you crochet the back side, you create an opening to slip the gift card into place. 

That's it from me for now.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a great day and I hope to see you again soon!

Hugs!

Three Cards!

Oh golly, I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! Yikes! It's been hard for me to get into my crafty space much anymore. I debated on whether to space out my cards, but not knowing when I'd get back to it, I figured you would get a feast today.

Hope you had a fun Halloween and a Happy Thanksgiving. Amy and I had to work Bingo on Halloween night. She was a little bummed at first, but did a great job. Her sister has been good about sharing her candy, too. That helps take the sting out of it.  ;)

We had a nice Thanksgiving. My dad flew in from CA to visit for 11 days. Two of my brothers also came to celebrate with us. They stayed the weekend. It was nice having family here. It was the first time my girls met one of my brothers, too. Now there is only one they haven't met. He had to work and couldn't join us. It was a great time, but I'm not used to so many people in the house!

We had some work done on our house thanks to a grant we received from our city. They upgraded our electrical panel, replaced 8 windows and replaced a gutter that was full of holes. This work also contributed to my not getting to my crafty space. But on Sunday I was bound and determined to work on some cards. All the family has gone home and the repair work has been completed. Steve took the girls out on an errand for a while and I got to work.

One of these days I will refrain from CASEing cards, but yesterday wasn't one of them. Two are pretty much copies of the card that inspired me. One of them I did change up a bit. All are cards I have seen online.

Sandy Allnock did a video on how she colored a card with these adorable elves. I copied what she did with the Inktense pencils I had. She used a MISTI to stamp them. I don't own one and a couple of colors are different than hers. But, everything else...copied!

I follow a blog where the gal does most of her Copic coloring using a no line technique. I've long wanted to see if I could mimic the idea using colored pencils. This is my attempt. Blatant copy of the Swanky Snowdudes card(Paper Smooches) she made, only using Flirty Frames from Lawn Fawn. I guess I put my own spin on this using a silver pigment ink to add ink to the edges and then the snowflakes. Frames are cut from Doodlebug paper.

This card is a bit different than the card that inspired me. You can definitely tell I copied parts of it. I love the look of watercolor and those little snowmen are so cute. I added the trees and some snow falling. Then I "winked" the snow bank. 

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season so far. 

Thank you so much for not giving up on me. I will try to get back soon!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week. 

Hugs!

Wizard Owl and a Card!

 Hi Friends!

I was told marching band was a big commitment and I believed those who told me that. But I didn't get just how busy life would be until I was in the midst of it. And I wasn't even the person who was doing the marching, the practicing and the playing! But I was the one who was taking the marcher, the practicer and the player to where she needed to be. And I am also the volunteer, helper and all that. I fully comprehend what a commitment marching band is now. :) The season has ended and my marching band student has completely and thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is eagerly looking forward to next season. Mom is happy that the marcher is happy, but also kind of happy that things should slow down a bit. Then the marcher told the mom that she signed a paper to try Winter Guard(Flags that perform inside).
Really?!

Oh yes, she also joined the recreational basketball league again.
Sigh.

The other daughter is doing great as well and is very busy, but doesn't need quite as much driving around as the first one does.

I have not been into my crafty space in what feels like a really long time and I do miss it. I am hoping that someday soon I will venture back in there. I mentioned before that I do have time in evenings, but don't do well cardmaking then. But I do enjoy doing handwork. Last summer, I came across a magazine online with a counted cross stitched wizardly owl on the cover that I instantly fell in love with. The magazine hadn't even been released at that point. I began stalking the stores in anticipation of buying the magazine for the pattern. Finally I found it and I got to work. I enjoyed creating this piece very much. However, I probably will not be stitching on black cloth ever again. Especially dark gray on black. My poor eyes sure got a workout and at times I needed extra light to see where I needed to stitch. But...all of that was SO worth it when I finished. I actually was done with the stitching awhile ago. I just needed to take the time to create the fabric border. I grabbed that time the other day and the project is completely finished.

I'm so happy with how this came out.
Feel free to enlarge to see it better. 

One of the more recently releases from Lawn Fawn was Happy Harvest. I decided to get it after I received my first paycheck for this school year. There was a day where I had some time to work on cards and I was so sure I would get oodles and oodles of cards made. This is the only one that got started. I didn't even finish it that day. But I eventually got it done. Sorry for the not so great photo. I took it with my smartphone. And there's some nice shadowing from the overhead lights going on. 

Colored with my prismacolor pencils. Popped up a bit and already in the recipient's hands. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

I truly hope you are doing well and are ready for a Happy Halloween (if you celebrate). 

I also hope I will be back again soon. 

Hugs!

Playing in Darnell's NBUS Challenge

Hi Friends!

Back to participate in Darnell's NBUS Challenge. If you haven't "met" Darnell, you should go check out her super fun and fabulous blog, here. She is a great gal who has a very big heart and a truly wonderful way with words that will leave you in stitches. She coined the acronym NBUS-Never Before Used Schtuff and occasionally has challenges for us to break out and use our hoard or supplies. You can check out all the rules and such here. I believe the challenge ends on the 18th, so you'd better get a hoppin'.

Onto my card...I recently celebrated my birthday and my good friend, Becky, gifted me with, among other goodies, this great Impression Obsession gingham background stamp. She knows how much I adore the gingham look. I had to break it out and use it right away. Not sure that was truly the intent with Darnell's challenge, but it fits the criteria, so I'm going with it. :)

I got the idea for the card online somewhere, only a different background was used. 

I inked up all those Lawn Fawn leaves, the background and the (Lawn Fawn)thanks with Close To My Heart inks, What can I say? I was feeling like getting inky. The thanks is also covered with Wink of Stella. 

Thanks for stopping by.

I truly appreciate the visit. 

Have a great day.

Hugs, 

Crocheted Retro Ornament Throw

Hi Crafty Friends!

Long time no see. I'm so sorry about my prolonged silence. I'm back to work, but our schedule is very different with Amy in high school now. I have to drive her to and from school. It's not bad, but it takes up time. She's loving high school so far. She is in marching band and played in her first football game a couple of weeks ago. The band sounded really good, but I might be a little biased. All that to say that my crafty time is limited. I don't do well stamping at night, so that doesn't help, either. 

Anyway, I have managed to work on some projects. I'm sharing a crochet project called a Retro Ornament Throw. It's a free pattern from Red Heart. The gal who wrote the pattern took the time to create some videos to show how to make the ornaments and then the strips and finally the finishing. Those were very helpful.  I just finished this project this afternoon. I'm thrilled with how it turned out. It is a gift for a friend who recently redecorated her home in a retro theme. 

I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn to make the project. What I really like about this yarn is there in no dye lot, so if you need to get more yarn you don't have to worry about it not matching up. And I did need to buy more soft white. I think that is the only mistake in the pattern. The pattern said 2 skeins of the soft white and I needed a little over three. I also had to substitute a color. The pattern called for a coral color, but it's been discontinued. I chose to use baby pink instead. 

That's it from me for now. I thank you so very much for stopping by. I will be posting a couple of cards in my next post. I just thought to keep them separated from the crochet project.