New Grand Baby

It's crazy how fast time flys.  No matter how hard I try to remember to write on my blog, something comes up and takes me away.

The best news to blog about is my new little grandson, Xander.  He was born on my birthday. He is 5 months old now. I just can't believe how fast the time went.  I went to my daughter's to help because Xander was feet first and she needed to have a C-Section.  He is an amazing little guy. He very seldom fusses and always seems to have a smile on his face.  He gets fussy sometimes where she can't do anything with him so she will swaddle him and after he is swaddled, he smiles at her and goes right to sleep.  Isn't he just the cutest little guy??? I am sad that he will be nearly 1 the next time I see him. I just want to kiss his little cheeks and squeeze him.

These pictures just melt my heart.  What about yours?

Wow! It's Been 2 Years!!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I've been to my blog.  A lot has happened in the last two years.  I had found a job at a tea shoppe that was so fun. I worked there about a year and the shoppe closed due to lack of customers.  We were in a bad location and off the beaten path.  It was the perfect job for me and I had a great time.  Guess all good things must come to an end.  I met some great people there and several local artists that have given me some great tips for painting.  I did have one commissioned painting and that made me feel like an artist.  I guess if you paint and draw you are an artist. Whether good or bad, your an artist.

Last summer I went to Alaska for a week to attend my 40th class reunion.  It doesn't seem so long ago that we were silly kids thinking we were so grown up.  I don't want to be a grown up anymore. I would rather be a silly kid.  No worries, no bills just play time all the time.

In December of this year I had surgery to remove a lobe on my lung due to a rare lung cancer.  It wasn't caused by smoking and they don't know what causes it.  Luckily it is very slow growing and it was caught by accident.

During all this time I haven't been on my blog, I have still been card making.  I got the new Cricut Explore and WOW! what a fabulous machine.  It cuts precise, you can print your image on the printer and then cut it out on your Cricut.  It cuts everything! Leather, cork, veneer, paper, vinyl and even fabric.  This machine is definitely for a crafter.  You can do so much.  If you are interested in the machine, go to Cricut.com and check it out.  They have free software called Design Space and you can subscribe to their cartridge library.  It's $99.00 for a yearly subscription or $9.99 a month. You get over 50,000 images and fonts.  I absolutely love having the subscription because it gives me the use of cartridges I wouldn't get to buy and also storage.  There are images that you can buy from $.99 or up to $4.99. (Fonts) I use it nearly every day when I am card making.

Have you heard of a MISTI? It is a stampers tool.  Oh my Gosh!! It is the coolest thing since bubblegum.  You should check it out on YouTube.  You will love it.

Okay, I'm going to dig around my computer and find some of the cards I have been doing to share with you.

 
This is an emboss on vellum card. I used colored vellum but also colored the back with copics.  I had seen this on Pinterest and I just fell in love with it.

 

I also saw something similar to this card on Pinterest and since I had just gotten my new Cricut, I had to cut out the Anna Griffin butterfly.

 This is from the Secret Garden stamp set.  I normally use CTMH stamps but I really like some Stampin Up stamps. This is Stampin Up.

 

I needed a sympathy card and didn't have any on hand.  I normally don't stock them but it is good to have at least one for when you need it.  I used the CTMH mini stamp set and Cricut Overlay with Close to My Heart paper.

 

This was a belt card.  I really enjoy making different types of cards.  Close to My Heart stamp with Laughing Lola paper.

Another Close to My Heart overlay and Mini Stamps.

 
 




I tried my hand at using the vinyl on my Cricut Explore. I love how it brightened up my mixer.

 

Well, that's all I have for today.  I don't want to flood this with cards so I will try to return and post more cards soon.



 

 

New Changes in life.....New Changes in Blog!

There were big changes in my life last year.  I went back to work after being off for 7 years.  It's much different from my past employment. I left the office arena and went to a TEA shop.  How fun is that??? This is not your "grandma's" tea shop. We specialize in Chinese Tonic Herbs. We focus on Health, Longevity and Prevention. I'll be posting pictures of the shop soon. It isn't what you would expect a tea shop to look like and it is pure fun! The owner is a fabulous decorator and I hope she will come to my house and give me some pointers. Of course I need to save up my earnings for that though.

I've found that it is much more difficult to manage housework, crafting and things in be general that I always did before now that I am working. I ran a house hold of 6, worked an 8 to 5 job and did quite well......30 years ago! I'm not sure how I managed that since I struggle with cooking and housework now with NO children.  I'm hoping it will all fall into place and I will do better with my time management.

I also got a commissioned order for a watercolor painting earlier in the month and I have been working on the painting so my greeting cards have slid by the wayside.  I am able to sell my art and cards at the tea shop so I need to figure this out real quick!

Before the holidays I took a very long (36 hour) train trip to Grand Forks, ND to visit with my daughter and grandson. I had such a great time and it hurt my heart so much to leave.

2014 promises to be a busy year for me. Beside working at the tea shop, I plan on devoting more time to my artwork along with my card making.  I'll be making a trip to Alaska for my 40th class reunion in July.

Happy 2014!

Happy Spring

Happy Spring to you! This is my favorite time of year. I don't even mind the spring showers. I love the bright greens and the pinks, purples, yellows of all the spring flowers. I don't have much of a green thumb but I have a few plants that are springing forth and boy does that make me happy.  We have had some rare warm 70's already and I am looking forward to a lovely summer.

I already broke my New Year's resolution to post at least once a month. I missed the month of March and I really don't know what I did. I guess nothing important enough to blog about.

I have done a couple of cards in the last week. I can't post one of them because it is my mother in law's Birthday card and I don't want her to see it ahead of time. I will post it a little later.  The Birthday card I am posting is by Great Impressions.  When my mom in law was here she brought some darling stamps from Great Impressions and I stamped a bunch of them.   The shiny silver paper is Close to My Heart and the blue sparkly paper  is Café Mediterranean matstack from DCWV.  I used the bubble Cuddlebug folder to emboss the blue background and the Cuddlebug folder to emboss the rick-rack on the edge.  The card is cut at 5 1/2 x 11 and scored at 4 5/8.  The stamped design was 3 1/4 x 3 1/4.  The little sparkly button is CTMH .

The Inside....

Hope you like it!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day.  My husband gave me a beautiful card and an Armani Code perfume gift box.  I left him a subtle hint by leaving my empty perfume bottle on his office desk. It worked, by golly!!

I'm having my first Close To My Heart card workshop on Saturday and I am so excited.  I know Saint Patrick's Day is the next holiday but we'll be doing a few Easter projects instead.  Here is what we'll be doing...

I have a question for all my scrappy friends.  When you are cutting, stamping and gluing, do you put things away as you use them? Or do you accumulate all your embellishments and markers and ink pads, stamps, ribbons and what not in front of you so that you only have a foot of space to do your work on? I am just curious if I'm the only unorganized crafter out there. 

With that said, I am going to try to reorganize my goodies so I can move on to the next project.  

See you next time! ;-)

Inside the Valentine

I realized after the weekend that the Valentine just looks like a flat Valentine where it really IS a card. Here is what the inside looks like.

I'm not really sure why it shows the black blur at the top of the pictures.  It has something to do with having taken the picture with my Tablet.

Whooo's Your Valentine

What a great Saturday it is today.  I slept late, sat around and read the paper, then crafted all afternoon. I guess everyone needs a lazy Saturday once in awhile.

My card this time reminds me of the boxes of Valentine chocolates. I used mostly CTMH stamps.  Whooo's Your Valentine was used around the ruffle of the heart and the sentiment.  I used the CTMH Cricut cartridge, "Artiste" to make the heart card and the little banner.  Stampin Up, "Perfectly Preserved" was used for the jar.  I used my little framelits to cut out the jar and lid.  I was experimenting with cutting fabric on my Cuddlebug and I am quite happy how it turned out.  It took a few tries, using shims to get it to finally cut through.  I glued the fabric onto cardstock which I had already cut out.  I used some Bamboo Waxy Flax for the string around the lid and bow. 

Here's wishing you a very lazy weekend!

CTMH Flirty

Can you help but be attracted to this title? Flirty is the name of the paper pack by CTMH that I used to create this card.   The sentiment was from the stamp sent "Say it in Style", CTMH and the stamp was CTMH "Just for You".  I love the flower with the individual petals.  I have been anxious to use this stamp. 

I really like the fact that this card can be used as a masculine as well as a feminine card.  The burlap ribbon is a fun accessory and goes so well with all the Flirty papers.

The new Spring/Summer Idea Book and Catalog is out now and has the cutest things in there. It's going to be hard to keep on my budget.  Curious? Come check it out.  grandmaplenty.ctmh.com

Close to My Heart

My first creation for 2013 is a combination of CTMH stamps that I have had but haven't used yet.  I need to make some birthday cards and I thought this one was cute.  Can you tell I am already thinking spring?

This card was made with CTMH "Dakota" paper.  The stamps were, "Rugged Dude, Every Day Life", "Bee Happy", and Smiles.  I used my Cricut to cut the little tag and used CTMH waxy flax to wrap it around the flower stem.  It was a fun card.  The card really is brighter than it looks. I used my new Tab to take the picture and haven't really figured it all out yet.  It is so much easier to use the Tab than our camera.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

When I first started my blog, I had all the intentions in the world to post something every day.  Since I was normally in my craft room daily, creating something, I figured I would have something to write about.  I started out good.... kind of like when you start a diet. I posted my pictures and wrote a little something about it.  Then I went a week without posting.  Then I went a month.  Now I think it has been two months.  So for one of my New Years resolutions, I am going to try to post something at least twice a month.  That certainly sounds doable.

Christmas is over and all the craziness.  Watching my grandson for Christmas vacation ends today so I should have absolutely no excuse not to be posting. 

I am not sure about my other card making peeps but I get tired of the same style of card.  I really enjoy special folded cards. That seems to give the card "oomph."  I do spend a lot of time checking out other blogs and the different card types.  My intention is to post as many different special folded cards as I can come up with.  If you have a suggestion, a tutorial to send me to, please leave me a comment so I can check it out.

Wishing you all a wonderful, prosperous, healthy, happy 2013.

Where has the year gone?

I can't believe it is almost the end of November already.  Its just so crazy that the older you get the quicker time flies.  I remember my mom telling me that years ago but I really had no idea how true that is.  I read a joke somewhere that age is like a roll of toilet paper.  The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.  That may not be exactly the words, but you get my drift. :-)

I don't even know where to begin since my last post.  I have done up some Christmas cards I would like to share with you. The summer went so fast that I hardly even remember what I did.  My grandkids are all back in school now so I expect after the Christmas Holiday things should slow down some.  I always seem to be able to find time to make a card or two. 

Okay, on to the cards...I totally didn't take any pictures of the birthday cards I made this summer and I am so bummed.  I really need to remember to do that.  Here are the Christmas cards I have been making.

These are all Close to My Heart cards.  The paper on the first two is Pear and Partridge. The burlap ribbon and the stamps are Close to My Heart.  The last picture is the stamp from the Pear and Partridge Card Workshop and the paper is Avonlea.  For those who are familiar with the the ornament stamp will probably notice that I stamped the big one upside down.  Yikes.

The stamp is from CTMH, the paper is from Basic Grey, Nordic Holiday 6 x 6 pad.

I don't own a Christmas wreath stamp so I used a a flower wreath stamp from Hot off the Press, Sweet Blossoms & Swirls. I colored it with Spectrum Noir markers and touched the little flowers with some red Smooch. The face of the card was embossed with the Cuddlebug Snowflake folder.

I love the triple stamped layered look.  My mother in law had one that she had gotten from a swap and I just had to try my hand at it.  The snowflakes are from multiple stamp packages.  I hand drew the ornament and colored it with Spectrum Noir markers and added some little Dazzle jewels from Hot Off The Press, Bitty Pearls from CTMH.

Close to My Heart stamps were used here.

I got this stamp in with my CardMakers magazine subscription. UK version. I used white liquid embroidery for the snow on the trees and ground, Stickles for the glitter and Spectrum Noir markers to color it in.

This ornaments stamp is CTMH October Stamp of the Month. The polka dot satin ribbon is also from CTMH. I believe the paper is from Basic Grey, Nordic Holiday.

I think I will end for the day.  Hopefully I will be back sooner than a month.  Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day.

Spectum Noir Markers

I neglected to mention my new find.  Spectrum Noir markers are an alcohol marker, but much less expensive than the Copics.  They come 6 markers to a pack and are all color coordinated to blend with each other.  They come in 12 different packs. I have a few Copics but not enough really to do any good blending.  I have noticed these SpectrumNoir markers in several card magazines and PaperWishes catalog.  Last week when I was shopping at JoAnn's with my mother in law I found these.  They were like $14.50 at JoAnn's and with a 50% off coupon I had to give them a try.  I love them!! They are a little wetter I think than Copics so you have to be careful when you are coloring in your images by the edges because they do bleed.  I do recommend them.  I will be investing in the rest of the packages.  So far I have the Pinks, Blues and Cool Grays.  I have Reds, Yellows, Greens and Pales coming in the mail.  Oh...and they are much less expensive online.

I just wanted to share this with you in case you had seen these like I did and were hesitant to buy them. Go for it!!! I believe they are worth every cent! And saving cents TOTALLY makes sense. Hee hee...I had to add that part.

Until next time!

It's Been Awhile

Don't you just hate it when you are typing along and have a goodly amount typed and then you just wipe it out?  ARRGH!  That just happened to me.  Somehow my computer highlighted all but the first sentence of my post and POOF! It all disappeared. A bit frustrating I must say.  I need to make sure that I don't hold my fingers on the keys because that is what happened when I lost everything.

Okay....hmmm. Where was I?  Okay, I think I have it. 
The rainy season is here and I have been busy in the kitchen and not doing a lot of card making. I've made a few birthday cards and yes, I sealed them up in the envelope and didn't take any pictures.  Normally I have made 10 Halloween cards for our grandkids by now but I haven't made one.  They are so fun too.  Instead I have been busy making bread, baking pies and cakes with the wonderful Fall bounty of my friends orchard.  I decided the kids will get Fall cards instead of Halloween.  Not as much fun but they love getting mail so I think it will be okay.

My mother in law will be here next weekend and I know I will be very busy crafting while she is here. She will be here for 10 days and with  Christmas coming  we'll be like busy elves, putting out the Christmas cards as fast as we can. I'm so lucky that I don't have to entertain because we just entertain ourselves in the craft room.

Because I have not taken any pictures of current cards, I thought I would post some previous cards.  These are a couple of Halloween cards from last year.

 

 

 

Time Slipped Away

I really want to be able to post something at least once a week.  Time has slipped away from me and this hasn't happened.  I haven't been idle though.  I am always working on something but not always so good at taking pictures. 

I made my daughter a goofy little sock monkey.  The sock monkey thing started when I made my grandson his sock monkey.  Then his mommy wanted one, so I made her one out of a purple striped pair of socks that I picked up at the thrift store. (It was new...not used)  Now my other daughter wants one.  I suspect there are many more to come.

I didn't get a picture before I mailed it off so I had my daughter email me a picture.  You can't really see her hat but I made a pink and purple polka-dot bow and attached it to the hat.  I named her "Dotty". 



 

Circular Step Card

I love making different cards.  My brain just seems to close down when I try to make a "regular" card. By "regular" I just mean stamping and decorating a "regular" close card.  Does that make sense?  I do enjoy making different folded cards.  Step cards have been really difficult for me. I don't know why.  I swear I am dyslexic when I am cutting and folding.  They always come out backward and sometimes I will do the same mistake cut three times.  At that point.  I throw it away and walk away from the craft table.  I will always come back to it a little later because I just refuse to let paper defeat me.

This is a circular side step card that I used as an entry in the CFC Outlawz challenge as my second card.  The dragonfly image was drawn by Sandi Huggett. 

 

Summer is coming to a close

Oh so sad.  I hate to see summer come to a close.  It went so fast I don't even remember what I did.  I did spend some quality time with my grandkids and I think that is most important. 

My blog has been kind of neglected for awhile but I expect that since summer is winding down I will be able to devote more time.

This card was an entry for the CFC Outlawz challenge for the weeks of August 26 through September 8.  Anne Fenton was the fabulous artist for this digi. 

New Computer

Happy Birthday to me once again.  Nope.  It still isn't my birthday but it's close enough that anything that I get these days is a birthday present.  This weekend my husband got me a new computer.  My other one had a really bad bug or something and he decided it wasn't worth the effort for an 8 year old computer.

Have you ever heard of people who "break" machines just by getting near them? I really think I am one of those people.  My husband seems to always be saying, "what did you break now?" My oven blew up about 6 months ago.  It really did.  The element inside turned into a welding rod and completely blew apart and blew out the circuitry. Today I was trying to take a picture of a card for The Outlawz challenge and the camera wouldn't turn on.  Yikes!  It did finally turn on and I was able to take the picture so I don't know if it is getting ready to quit, or if it just didn't like me.  Everytime I tell my husband something doesn't work, he will look at it and yep, you know it, it works.  It is getting expensive though.

This is the card I made for this challenge for The Outlawz. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

It really isn't my birthday yet but this weekend I bought myself an early present. A new Expression 2 Cricut. Oh I love it!!! Michael's had them on sale so I nabbed one. My sister in law was visiting me from out of town and gave me the "ins and outs" of the machine. I'm off and running with it. I had one of the first Cricut Personal Cutting machines when they came out and it has served its purpose well. It didn't have the required innards to be able to do the awesome functions the new Cricut Workshop has online though and was limited to what I could cut. Now I can make envelopes to match my cards. Well, there is a whole lot more I can do with the new one. Company is gone now and today I took the morning to play.

On another note, my PC is still out of commission and I am still unable to take pictures off my camera. I took some pictures of cards I made this weekend with my cell phone and sent them to my daughter to email them to me. It's a round about way but I am thinking that should work.  I'm beginning to think I am making my computers sick because the loaner PC my husband gave me is now having issues too.  I do have a virus checker so we're not sure what's going on.

The weather has been pretty hot here. It's been in the 90's and expected to be 102 degrees on Thursday. We (the people of the Pacific Northwest area) aren't used to anything warmer than the 80's, so it is causing some people distress. If it rains, we complain there is too much rain, then we get sun and complain because it is too hot. I love the sun...but it would be nice to have air conditioning.

Here are the cards from this weekend.

My sister in law found this cute little card on Pinterest. I don't know who to give credit to but would be more than happy to if someone wants to let me know.  The clouds were drawn with Cricut gel pens and the Cricut.  The rest of it was made with scraps that I had. I used the Owl punch from "Stampin Up."

Rounding the corners of a square gave this four square card a different look.  The paper is "Dotty for You", CTMH and the sentiment is also from CTMH.

The teddy bear paper is from Hot Off The Press and the bee stamp is CTMH.

The banner for my utility room didn't quite turn out as I would have liked.  It definately doesn't show up well in the picture.  I said I would post it though so here goes!

Everything was so white and plain so I decided to add a little color.

So long, hard drive!

The hard drive on my PC died, so I have to do things a little different in posting pictures.  My hubby gave me a helping hand so I could post the pictures.

I still haven't finished the banner. I am hoping to do that tomorrow.  Bye for today.

I Wanted One More Post

Time has gotten away from me.  I thought I could get in one more post for July but here it is, the 1st of August and I missed it. I don't have any pictures to post today because I can't seem to get the pictures off the camera onto my laptop.  I haven't been idle though.  I decided to use some of my scraps up and I'm making a banner to hang in my laundry room.  It is just stark white and even though I make a lot of things for other people, I haven't really kept much for myself.  I have one more letter to go and my banner will be ready to be hung. I'm really excited to see it all put together.

I also made my first card for this months challenge for The Outlawz.  It's pretty much a CAS easel card.  Anne Fenton made the image and it was so pleasing to color it in.  It would be nice to see that out my back door! The paper is Close to My Heart, "Dotty for You."

I can't forget the dear little sock monkey I made for my grandson.  So, since my last post, I have been really getting my craft on.

I've decided to become a Close to My Heart consultant, so am waiting for my "Essentials Kit" to arrive. I'm a little bummed that I didn't wait until today to sign up because I missed the nifty bag they are giving away as an incentive to sign up starting August 1.  Do you think since I signed up two days early they will give me the bag? Naw...probably not.

The new Fall/Winter Catalog and Idea book is now in effect.  If you aren't familiar with Close to My Heart, checkout my website.  grandmaplenty.ctmh.com.  You can browse through the online catalog, and should you decide to order anything you can order it right on my website.

That's the craft wrap up for today.  I am hoping my husband can get my PC going and I can post some pictures soon.