A new venture...

Just checking in for a quick note. I know there are some of you who go through withdrawal when you come to my site and I haven't put anything new up. I just go back from vacation last night at midnight. We spent a wonderfully relaxing time up at my dad's cottage in the Upper Peninsula. It was nice that we could all be there together. His place is on a little inland lake where the water is much warmer- nothing like the cold frigid water of Lake Superior. We had beautiful weather and we all look sun kissed. This vacation ended up opening a new door from me which I will tell you about further in the post but onto the subject at hand.

For this card I used my cuddle bug for the background and DCWV Nursery-Baby Girl paper. The Wrought Iron Grille stamp is from Stampington & Company and the birds are from Magenta. I added some pearls to the top of the grille and rhinestones around the birds for some added bling. The printed flower in the upper right is from Hero Arts - Art Flowers vintage cottage. This card actually got purchased from a neighbor up at the cottage. She wanted to see some of my cards and I had a bag of my most recent ones. She had family coming in and needed three birthday cards. This one she chose for her 23 year old granddaughter.

As I started to tell you something very exciting happened for me on this vacation. While I was up in town visiting my cousin, someone saw my cards and I was commissioned to sell them at a store up in Calumet which is where I grew up. It is about 20 miles from my dad's cottage and a very big tourist place in the summer. So to that I had better get started on making some cards. I will share a little more about my vacation in a later post.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Celebrating perfect creation

After the pictures I posted on my last blog I was thinking how incredible the creation of all the different flowers and birds really is. The different colors and shapes of the petals and leaves is unfathomable. This is what brought me to today's card in celebration of his work. As I am writing this there is a wild turkey walking out back along the edge of our yard at the tree line with her two little babies. Just another example of his perfection.

I used the SU set "God's Beauty. The designer paper is from DCWV Nursery-Girl. I used two different border punches from Martha Stewart. It is a little hard to see but the white scallop has embossed flowers on it and I put a small pearl in the center of each one. The sentiment barely fit in my oval punch with just the edge of a scalloped oval peaking behind. The little lime flowers I made with my SU Trio Flower punch. I have looked at this punch several times and never bothered to order it. Now I see all kinds of uses for it. I was looking for small flowers this size and now I can make my own of any color I choose. I thought they would also look great as centers for larger flowers. I don't know who makes the chipboard butterfly I used because I took them out of the package for storage. I got them at Hobby Lobby and they were in a divided plastic packaging. There were four different colors. Two were metallic like the one I used and the other two had flocking on them. They all had the rhinestones which caught my eye immediately. You know the bling bling will get me every time.

My daughter is home from North Carolina and boy oh boy the garbage men are going to be sorry. We have gone through my cabinets, fridge and freezer and pitched and organized like crazy. I can always count on her to get my Tupperware cabinet looking good when she comes home but this time we went to town. It is a standing joke with us that the only time it gets organized is when she comes home. We even found enough time to weed my gardens and clean the very high windows inside in out on the house. This is no easy feat because we need a 16 foot ladder to reach them (or should I say she needed it to reach them). She was even on the roof over the front porch to clean the large window on the outside over the front foyer. It is such a good feeling when these types of projects get done and having her here to motivate and help me was even better. We had accomplished this all in 2 days believe it or not and now we are just relaxing and enjoying our time together. Her husband flies in tonight for another week. I bet the garbage men will be afraid to come back next week.

Have fun and enjoy,

~Kim

In my very own backyard

Well I promised you some picture of the visitors I had in my yard the past weekend. I was sitting out on the deck and I was just enjoying the day with my eyes closed when I hear a bird call that I usually don't hear. I opened my eyes and saw this beautiful Baltimore Oriole at my hummingbird feeder. I quickly ran in and got a bowl of grape jelly. It didn't take long before several of them found it. They hung around in the trees for about 3 days and then moved on. Take a look.














While I had the camera out and the sun was shining so nice on my flowers I thought I would take a few more. To my amazement there was this little friend perched on the spike in one of my planters.









You can only imagine how excited I was to get these pictures. I wonder why... he or she stayed there for the longest time. I thought about using it in my header but I still like the blue in the one I am using. Here are just a few more of my flowers.

















Hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy!

~Kim

Did Cinderella loose her dress...

I want to start off by saying that this was not my original idea. It was taught in a class at Strawberry Fields just outside of Cape Coral Florida. The creator of this dress form said that she couldn't sleep one night so she got up and came up with this idea. I don't know her name but if I ever do I will be sure to give her credit for such a unique idea.

A few of us got together at my friend Carol's house (she is back here in Michigan) and she showed us how to make these dresses. This one is my creation. We used the new paper from Graphic 45- Botanicabella Collection. The cut out butterflies are on the front and I also showed a picture of the back. The coat hanger I made out of wire and it turned out pretty good if I say so myself. I always look forward to going to Carol's because we just relax and have such a good time while we create. I think we do as much talking was we do creating.

I made a tuna noodle salad and brought some fresh cucumbers and a nice loaf of french bread. Carol lives on a large river that carries freighters from the great lakes as well as several other boaters under the Blue Water Bridge that connects Michigan to Canada. The view is absolutely beautiful and lunch feels like you are away on a vacation.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. I didn't even make anything patriotic but I did put flags out and I am ever so grateful to live in such a wonderful country. Though we may not be in the best spot economically we at least know what freedom feels like. Not everyone can say that.

I took some beautiful pictures of visitors to my backyard and I will share those with you this week. Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Sharing my passion...

It was my turn to teach a technique and share my passion with my stamping club. They asked me if I would teach them how to use a brayer and the resist technique. It was nice to be able to teach a class that I actually have done the technique on my own several times. I also went over the do's and don'ts of using the brayer and several different ways you can use it. Splitcoast stampers is a wonderful resource if you have any questions or want the list of ways to use the brayer. I made these samples while I was on vacation. I got back just in time for club and then we left the next morning to take our last little chickadee to college orientation and a peek of his new apartment. The college is only 3 hours away and then we drove back home that night. I sure am going to miss that guy when he goes in two months. I think I am in pre-empty nest sydrome already. Saturday I was exhausted from all the travel this week or maybe it was thinking of Elliot not being here in the fall.

Here is my sample of the resist technique using Versamark on glossy card stock and SU Sahara Sand classic ink. The card stock is SU River Rock and Rose Romance. The border was done with SU border punch and I also used their curly label punch and "great friend" stamp set. I ran some of my favorite ribbon through the Fiskars border punch on the left. The butterfly punch is from Martha Stewart. I really wasn't happy with where I had to put the label as I would have liked it to be more in the bottom right corner but I didn't want to cover up the butterfly resist since I only had two on the card. The sentiment was from Hero Arts. I was looking for something small and only used the hooray out of the "hooray for you !" stamp.

This next card was also a resist with an old SU Kaleidacolor cotton candy stamp pad. The stamp is "Butterfly Flourish" by Stampington and Company. I used two of Martha Stewart's punches and some prima flowers. The card stock is SU Regal Rose and So Safron.

This last sample was done just brayering SU Sahara Sand onto glossy card stock. I stamped "Lone Tree" from Paper Bag Studio in black Stazon and then did some layering. I wanted this to be a masculine card so I kept it simple. I turned the square brads on a diagonal to get some height for the tall slender image of the tree

As usual we always have a great time learning from each other. We were all covered in ink by the end of the night. A lot of laughing and stamping is just what the soul needs and when it is shared with friends makes it even sweeter.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Just for today it's a man's world...

I have eight good friends that I get together with once a month and we spend an evening together stamping. We used to make eight trading cards each month and then we gave everybody one so at the end of the night we had eight different ones. We would pick a theme and it was a lot of fun, but what do you do with all those trading cards? We decided that we would try something different so now we make one full sized card. We still pick a theme and then we put them all on the table and assign a number to each one. We draw a number and you get the corresponding card. This month was a masculine theme for Father's Day and this was the card I made. Nothing really special as most of my masculine cards usually are. I really have to reel myself in and not go too foo-foo when I make a card for men.

The stamp is "John Jacob" from River City Rubber Works. I was playing with my Adirondack "lights" again on glossy card stock. For this card I used Aqua and Cloudy Blue and just randomly stippled the colors on. Once it was dry I stamped John Jacob in Memories Black. I used my Harlequin Cuttle Bug folder on the silver card stock. My favorite SU Word Window punch was used on the sentiment. I added three little black gems for his buttons and one on each end of the sentiment.

I am going on vacation next week and I am taking some homework with me. It is my turn to teach at our larger stamp club this month. I was asked if I would show them how to use the brayer on glossy card stock and the resist technique. I need to make some samples to bring so I thought I would take some things with me and whip up a few. We'll see what happens!

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Hey girlfriend...

I didn't realize I had become a daily fix for some of you and I am very flattered. When I haven't posted in awhile I soon hear about it. I will try my hardest not to disappoint my peeps. Oh I so wanted to be able to say that even if it is only a handful.

I was working with my new Ranger Adirondack "lights" inks and I used the lemonade and shell pink on glossy card stock. I stippled the ink on and then heat set it. I just love this stamp of girlfriends from River City Rubber Works. I wanted to celebrate the fact that one of my dear friends is coming home from Florida and we can soon get together to stamp again. I can't believe it has been 8 weeks since I was down to visit her. I haven't enjoyed myself that much in a long time. I really owe her big time. I think a nice cook out for her and her hubby is in order.

The designer paper for this card is SU- flocked together and the card stock is SU- so saffron and black. I used my Fiskar border punch and SU word window. JoAnn Fabrics had a great clearance sale on their trim a few weeks back so I picked up this white braid and added pearls. The flowers are Prima.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim