Channeling My "Inner Kay" :) Hey Gillfriend!

Hi There!

I've got a card to share with you today that was completely cased from my good friend Kay Miller. Here's the one she made and below is my version. I can't ever hope to blend as well as she does, but I did try to channel my "inner Kay" as I created this. I got a huge assist from my stamping buddy, Jessica. :) She did all the coloring of the critters.   I think she did an awesome job. 

I did the fussy cutting.

I thought I'd share that I listened to people who say if you watercolor something, don't immediately trash it if it doesn't work for the project you are working on. I had a background done for months that'd I'd keep seeing and thinking, should I trash this? Well, I never did and when I was working on this card, I wondered if I cut that piece up, would it look good as the sea water? I think it worked pretty well and it's finally used up. ;) And, while you can't tell in the photo, unless maybe it you enlarge it, the white piece is glittered cardstock. Adding the purple fish is my last attempt at doing something a bit different-even if it might be a fish that doesn't belong in the sea. It's my fantasy world and I think it'd be just fine. Ha, ha! The rest of the design is all her creative genius. 

I also finished coloring the seahorse picture. Go me! 

Now the tricky part is trying to decide what to work on next. 

I have many books to choose from!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you are having a wonderful day. 

Hugs!

Fairy Friends Magical Day and Colored Seahorses!

Hi there!

We sure enjoyed our first week of summer break. It really had a low key feel. But next week, Amy will be volunteering at a STEM camp at the high school. It's the same event she participated in last summer, only this time she will be helping out. She's looking forward to that and also the start of marching band practice.  So, we'll be a tad busier. 

I have been working on doing some cleaning up around the house. The kind of projects I kept putting off because I didn't have time, or more likely, the energy to tackle during the school year. That's felt good. The weather was nice, not to cool and not too warm. I think this next week we are supposed to have a good dose of heat, though. The swamp cooler is up and running, so we should be able to stay cool. 

I've been checking out You Tube a bit more than I have in the past. My girls watch it constantly and while I've watched videos, they are usually the ones that I have been made aware of via blogs. I have never sought out a particular You Tuber and subscribed. Well, somehow, last week, I came across a video by Johanna Basford, the artist who has drawn The Secret Garden, The Lost Ocean and The Enchanted Forest coloring books(I own all three, but haven't colored in them much). I was captivated. She has a lovely accent and her studio looks amazing. She has done a tutorial on coloring the seahorses in The Lost Ocean and I love, love, loved the color combination. That inspired me to follow along and color the seahorses. I did the one on the left first last week and then colored the one on the right yesterday. I did it mostly the same, but changed a few things as well. I'm itching to color the rest of the page. Most likely after I publish this post. :) Anyway, I've been having fun subscribing to  and watching different You Tube channels.

This morning I watched a video on coloring a dragonfly...so pretty! 

This You Tube stuff could become quite the rabbit hole for me...much like Pinterest or Instagram, I'm sure. 

I also came across a card on a Lawn Fawn Flickr Friday post here and I fell hard. So much so that I had to recreate it for myself. I put a couple of different elements in it to make it more my own, but I stayed as true as I could to the color scheme. As close as I could using my pencils. 

I'm only sad that you can't really see the sparkle on this card. I've used Wink of Stella and the Stardust Gelly Roll pen  and it didn't get picked up on the camera. I tried it standing up above and laying down, below. 

Oh well.

Guess you'll just have to trust me that it's sparkly in real life. ;)

That's it from me for now. I truly appreciate you stopping by. 

I hope you have a great day!

Pitcher of Tulips

Hi there!

Today I decided to color a Power Poppy digital image called Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher and used two of the samples in the listing for the image as my inspiration for coloring. I just used my Prismacolor pencils today. No odorless mineral spirits this time.  My friend, Barb, always inspires me when she shares her colored images. If you haven't checked out her blog, you really should. 

I really liked the look of having some of the flowers come off the edge of the cardstock. I saw this one one of the sample cards and recreated it and the banner for the sentiment as well. On another sample, I was drawn to the pink and peach tulips and I did my best to get a similar look. I am fairly certain the artist used Copics on the cards that inspired me. I must say, I'm pretty happy with the final result. I almost added Wink of Stella, but decided to keep the flowers "au natural."  ;) I am also pretty happy with how the leaves turned out.  And once, I covered part of the pitcher, I liked it a lot more, too. The highlight looks a lot more realistic. 

The plaid paper is from Lawn Fawn, the yellow cardstock is Die Cuts With a View brand. I used a ruler and pen to frame the image. 

We have 9 school days left in this year. I can hardly believe it! Maybe I'll find a little more time to get crafty more often. One can hope.

In the meantime, thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great start to your week.

Hugs,

Lawn Fawn-Gleeful Gardens Birthday Shaker Card CASE

Hello Friends!

Several weeks ago, I saw this card and was smitten. I adored the colors, the shaker, just the whole happy scene. I started this card last weekend, but didn't have time to finish. This one has one of those wax paper resist backgrounds I made. I liked how the embossing folder made me think of wind It's kind of hard to see because of the sequins but it's there.

I did change things up a bit from the card I was inspired by(yay, me). The background for one and instead of using a stamp for the happy birthday sentiment, I used a Lawn Fawn scripty die and inlaid the cut. It took a bit of patience to stick those bitty parts back in, but I think it was worth the effort. I added some clouds just for fun. I know you can't see it in the less than stellar photo, but I "Winked" up the clouds and the snail shells and even the scripty saying. I also added some white gel dots to the birthday present. Mainly I used Gleeful Gardens from Lawn Fawn. The Sun and clouds are from the LF die set called Spring Showers. I love the "stitching" on these dies. I colored the images in using my trusty pencils and odorless mineral spirits. 

This was a fun one to create and makes me smile. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great week!

Hugs,

Birthday Card Inspired by Laura Bassen with Some Wax Paper Resist

Hi There!

Guess what? I had the house to myself for a few hours yesterday. I cannot tell you the last time that has happened. :) I tried to take advantage of it. While I knew I probably should have done some yard work outside, I did not! I headed straight for my crafty space and tried to get some cards made. 

I read a blog recently(stationery Styles by Patti) where Patti shared that she made some background papers. It's the post here.  Anyway, she watched a technique video on StampTV with GinaK and used the beautiful backgrounds she created on some cards. I vaguely remember this technique from years ago and wanted to play. Thanks for sharing that info, Patti! So, I did that before I got started on a card. In fact, I made 5 backgrounds using various embossing folders and distress inks.

Here are three of the backgrounds I created. I've used the other two. 

One on a card I'm sharing here. 

And here it is!

This card is my take on one created by Laura Bassen as seen here. Have you seen her work or watched her videos? Oh my gosh, I adore the videos because she always sounds so happy and fun. I have a feeling she'd be a blast to hang out with. 

Anyway, I really liked the ink blended background piece she created in the blues and greens.

She was promoting  Simon Says Stamp products, which I don't own. So, I improvised. To make the Polaroid looking piece, I used a rectangle and a square Nestability die together. Eh, it sorta worked. :)

My little raccoon guy is a Lawn Fawn party animal colored with my Prismacolor pencils and the heart balloon is from another LF set(Hello Sunshine I think). I tried to make the fur look like fur, but I wasn't entirely successful. The sentiment is Avery Elle. And that green background is the waxed paper resist using Twisted Citron distress ink. 

Wish I could have gotten more cards made, but I had fun with what I was able to create. 

Amy and I had to work Bingo last night, and it was what they call a "must go" which means that there was a $5000 jackpot that someone would be winning. (Hence, the term "must go"). The patrons come out in full force for this and it was was quite busy the second session of the night. We didn't finish up until 1 am. I was doing pretty good today until I sat down for a few minutes. Um, the next thing I know, the afternoon is pretty much gone. Yep, guess I was  a smidge pooped. Ha, ha!

Thanks so much for stopping by. And thanks, too for the encouragement I received on my previous post. I appreciate it so much. 

Have a great day and a great start to your week!

Hugs!

Hello and Happy Mail Card

Hello there!

Whoa Nelly, life is a roller coaster. I can't even remember last time I was in my crafty corner before today. But I got there and was able to create this card using Lawn Fawn's Just For You stamp set, along with their Perfectly Plaid 6x6 paper pad. Images are colored with pencils and Winked just a bit. Sorry for the not so great photo. My batteries died in my camera, so I used my phone. If I waited for the batteries to charge, who knows how long it'd be before I got to post. It felt good to create something! The idea for the card came from a couple of different cards I saw on the internet. 

Amy joined Winterguard this year and had competitions on Saturdays(I helped drive students to the competitions and assisted getting the massive tarp off the floor), so getting to create those days was pretty well not happening. She had such a good time. The group made it to the state competition, but didn't pass the preliminary stage. Given this is the first year in many years her high school has even had their own Winterguard team, I think they did an amazing job! Amy thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is looking forward to next year. 

Back toward the end of March we had a blizzard come through that dumped over 15 inches of snow. We got two snow days, but on the second snow day, I slipped on some black ice and tweaked my right wrist pretty good(or more like pretty bad). It still isn't 100%, but I'm managing. I miss doing my handwork.

Our Spring Break was the first full week in April. And I was happily looking forward to finally getting some creating done. Well, life had other plans yet again. I came down with an upper respiratory infection that kept me on the couch pretty much the whole week. Drat. And I was so generous that my husband and younger daughter caught the same bug. :( My daughter was out sick from school all last week, so I was tending to her most of the week-hubby worked from home one day so I was able to head in to work on Friday. My two co-workers got the same bug over break, so I know where it came from. The perils of working in an elementary school environment. 

Our weather has also been on a roller coaster. After that blizzard I mentioned, we had some wonderful spring like weather with temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s. This weekend? Snow! Next week-upper 60s to upper 70s. Gotta love the Colorado weather ride!

Thanks for stopping by. I know I am so hit or miss on posting. I sometimes wonder if I should even bother blogging anymore. Do I add much, if anything, to the realm of blogging about what I create?  Is it even interesting to anyone? I do so appreciate your visit, though and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Unexpected Visitors!

Hi there!

This is the view that greeted Amy and I as I pulled into the driveway yesterday afternoon. 

There are 10 turkeys there!

2 males and the rest females.

They were just hanging out.

I called my neighbor to ask if I needed to call anyone and she told me this little harem had been wandering the neighborhood all day. She figured they'd wander off on their own as they had been all day. It was funny watching cars drive by, slow down, stop, and phones coming out for photos. Amy even got a Girl Scout cookie sale out of this. Ha, ha. Jessica was still at school and missed out on the Turkey Trot. 

You just don't see this very often in the middle of suburbia.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I've not been able to get to my crafty space in so long. 

Hopefully sometime soon I'll be able to get back to it. 

Hugs,