I have a Dream...

" I have a dream". A bit off track of the famous one, but still a dream. Mine would be to be able to create as my paid profession. I am always careful of what I dream of because I don't always think it comes in the form we had anticipated. My fear is that my dream of being able to stay home and play in my stamp room all day- every day, may come in the form of a lay-off. I have to say I would certainly like my dream to be of my own choice. I have always envied Tim Holtz for being able to do what he does. I guess that is most likely a dream of all us crafters. None the less it is still fun to dream.

I had a few of the designer paper scraps from Heidi Grace-Winnefred St. which I got on clearance at JoAnns last year. I have a special attachment to it because my grandmother's name was Winnifred- Grandma Winnie. She has been dead 20 years now but I still think about her often. Ok, back to the card. I wanted to use the tag which is from K& Company and I used a stamp set from Fiskars-Family. It had the perfect word to fit the tag and the beautiful flourish that filled the spellbinders scallop oval. I took a Sakura gel pen- Clear Star to certain parts of the flourish to give it some subtle bling. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the metallic color at the tips. Some pretty seam binding, a Prima flower and some rhinestones finished off the card. The flower pattern in the bottom right corner of the paper created a perfect edge to put my rhinestones on a diagonal for bit of a different look. I kind of like it.

Not much happening this weekend. We had our neighbors over for a cookout before they move today. We certainly are going to miss them. They were a very nice couple and always included us when they had parties or a family get-together. They are moving less than an hour away so we will still be able to see them every once in awhile. Tomorrow night we are having some other friends over for a cookout that is long over due. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous so it should be a nice relaxing evening out on the patio with good friends and good wine.

Have fun and enjoy!

Settling back in...

Life can finally start to slow down and we can settle back into a slower pace of life. Elliot moved back to school yesterday and with less angst on my part. Last year I felt the need to make sure he had all the comforts of home. I don't know who I was trying to comfort, him or me. This year as long as he had his clothes and essentials I was fine. He on the other had was ecstatic to be out on his own again. I spent the day getting the house back into shape and his room thoroughly cleaned. Even though I seldom go to that end of the hall, I no longer have to be hit by the smell of dirty clothes. I did what laundry he didn't take and I wondered if the child has any underwear or socks because I folded and put away dozens of them. I had forgotten his motto- why do laundry when you can just go out and buy more.

Today's card is a birthday card for my mother-n-law. I made the large yellow flower out of satin ribbon and a button. I just gathered the ribbon with a running stitch along the edge and then used hot glue to put the button in place. The white flourishes are from an EK-Success punch called Swirl Flourish and the border punch is MS optic dot. the designer paper is DCWV- Cafe Mediterranean. I stil haven't used any of the new products I purchased from the Novi stamping expo. They keep calling to me but I just can't seem to find the time- maybe tonight.

I think we have gone through our dog days of summer. The temperatures have settled back into the low 80's with low humidity. It is so nice to sleep with the windows open again. My flowers finally look great and I and I can actually sit out on the patio and admire them again. I love fall but I am certainly not looking forward to it this soon. I feel like I fell asleep and woke up three weeks later to the end of summer. The days have certainly gotten away from me. Hopefully mother nature still has a few nice weeks in store for us.

Take care and enjoy!

Forever Friends...

I think I'm back! I'm starting to find a little bit of the stamping mojo I seemed to have been missing as of late. It might just be the anticipation of the Novi stamping convention that is this coming weekend. I have my wish list of items that I am hoping to find and a list of things I already have. Mostly colors of mists, stickles and flowers that I don't want to duplicate. I definitely have enough stamps, so this will be a tool and embellishment expedition.

I just picked up this DCWV paper "Cafe Mediterranean" and the colors just flowed as I put it together. Help me out here- the butterfly at the top of the card; is he right side up? I couldn't quite figure out which way was up. I don't know, maybe it isn't even a butterfly.

I found a really good deal on this new MS border punch- "Optic Dot" at Michaels this weekend. For some reason it was marked ($7.99)50% off as was the corner and I was even able to use a 40% off coupon on the corner punch because the clerk said it wasn't clearance. The corner punch rang up at $4.99 and only $2.99 after the coupon. Of course I had to go back and see what else was on the rack that didn't really tickle my fancy at full price but for $4.99 would be a nice addition to my collection. I ended up only getting the "Rain Drop" edge and corner. The others just didn't do it for me, not even at that price. I have no idea why these were so cheap because they are the newer designs. As you can imagine I was in pure heaven.

Did you know that Paula Dean now has designer paper plates, napkins, placements, place cards and confetti. Before you know it she will have punches and paper. The light teal flowers that I used on my card come in a package of 300 for $1.49 but they were on sale for 30% off that at Michaels. Each one is four petals but putting two of them together makes a real cute full flower. You can see the embossing on the petals in the image below. I put a small Prima paper flower in the center. The lighter celery leaves are from Creative Impressions and I just love them. They are very airy and they shimmer so nicely. I didn't have any rhinestone flourishes so I made my own. Not quite as fancy but they work.

Not much else happening here. Again the weather man is teasing me with thunderstorms tomorrow. I am beginning to think he is enjoying this.

I will let you know if I find any of the "must haves" or "to-die-fors" this weekend at the convention. I am very disappointed that Ranger won't be there. That means it will be hard to find the new Tim Holtz items. I was hoping to save on shipping costs with buying direct- oh well!

Have fun and enjoy!

Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper...

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, but it sure feels like it. I can't believe it has been that long since my last post. I literally have not felt like stamping. Yes, you heard me right, and I can't believe it myself, but I really have not had the mojo for it. This card is even a few weeks over due. The poor little guy is already 5 weeks old. How awful it that!

I really love this buggy stamp by 100 Proof Press and I have used it before in baby blue ink. Not wanting to be too traditional I decided to go with Early Espresso and Soft Sky by SU. The "Baby" stamp was only a dollar by Studio G. I ran the espresso card stock through the Cuttlebug and the image was cut out with Spellbinders label 2. A bit of lace to give it a vintage look yet not too frilly. After all it is for a boy. The teeny tiny rhinestones are actually a smokey brown but didn't photograph well. Hopefully the poor child hasn't already grown out of the outfits I am sending along with the card.

I have been insanely busy at work and it has left me with little energy to be creative. We are working towards our accreditation with the American College of Radiology for Nuclear Medicine. The paperwork that has to be filled out is endless and the images that get sent in have to reflect our best work. Needless to say I have been very picky as to which images I am allowing for submission. There was also some juggling of vacation schedules to get our service engineer into to do his work on our cameras in timing with when the physicist had to come in to do their testing. All of this Quality Control on the cameras gets submitted as well for review. Once the ACR gets your initial application and their money- we are given only 45 days to complete all of this. And if that isn't pushing it, we had another isotope shortage which limited the number of exams I could select my images from. I am now certainly aware of "when it rains, it pours" and I am soaking wet!!!

Once this is over I will have the rest of the summer to sit back and relax. That is, once I create an on-line education program on Radiation Safety for the entire hospital. Did I mention that I am required to educate anyone who works around or may come in contact with radioactive materials or our department, on an annual basis. Only now instead of having to get up in front of a group at department meetings, it will be a self study program on-line. I don't know how I am going to handle not seeing those looks of bewilderment or just pure boredom on their faces. I sure am going to miss that-NOT. And to think employees still need annual evaluations. Just where does the time go. I guess it just flies by when you are having so much fun.

I am looking forward to a distraction in a few weeks. The rubber stamp convention is in Novi and a bunch of us from our stamp club will be madly spending our money we have been hoarding and stashing away for months. "Calm down honey, it is just the pop can money I have been collecting"- Hee Hee.

Hopefully that will help with the creativity mojo, but I am disappointed that Tim Holtz won't be there. Maybe next year and if he does, I highly recommend taking one of his classes. It is worth every penny.

Have fun and enjoy!

The same but a little different

Happy 6th of July! Since I didn't make any Fourth of July cards this year, I waited until I could post something that wasn't patriotic. I have been busy prodding Elliot to put away all the things he brought home from college and decided the spare bedroom was the perfect dumping ground. I couldn't even find the bed when I walked into the room and his room wasn't much better. It is amazing the difference between boys and girls when it comes to organization. Luckily we had family coming home so it had to get done.

This card is using the same color scheme as my last post but still a bit different. I found the white flower applique in my stash and decided this was a perfect card for it. I punched out the bird from my favorite Stampin' Up punch. I love how the wing can be a different color to pull in the designer paper. The border is a Martha Stewart punch-scroll lace. This card was for the birthday of one of my stamping buddies who had just celebrated her big day.

For all of you that live down south, you may not have much sympathy for me but it has been in the 90's here since the 4th and expected to be even hotter tomorrow. My favorite two letters these days are A & C. Our typical temperatures are in the low 80's so this takes a lot out of us. My daughter Becky and her husband came home from Raleigh N.C. for the holiday and she said this heat was nothing. Becky isn't one to sit still so whenever she comes home there are always some projects that get taken care of. This visit it was to clean out the garage and some transplanting in the gardens. I love her energy because it encourages me to get up and get things done that desperately need attention but boy it sure wears me out and the hot weather didn't help. Needless to say that after doing some gardening very early this morning, I am pooped. A nice cold shower this afternoon and a nap didn't even seem to pep me up. It's back to work for me tomorrow and maybe some less manual labor- something I can handle.

Here's hoping a good nights sleep rejuvenates me and my creativity. I have a ton of new products sitting on my desk just begging to be used.

Have fun and enjoy!

A bit of pink and a shabby rose

Wow did that week ever go by fast. I can hardly believe it will soon be the 4th of July. It seems like I just got all my spring garden work done. Oh, that's right- I did just finish that, didn't I. Well the best of the summer is yet to come and now I can sit back and just enjoy it.

Today's card is using one of my homemade flowers made from a strip of designer paper folded in half and then scrunched and twisted- shabby, don't you think. I hot glued it to a circle piece of paper to be used as a base and then I could use it when I wanted. I certainly don't have the time to be making the flower as I make the card. I find that if I spend an afternoon or evening making a bunch of flowers to supply my stash it makes the card making process a bit easier. It might also be the design element that gives me the idea for the color scheme of my card. Isn't it amazing how one little piece of paper, ribbon or button can be the spark that creates the idea for the card. I just love it when that happens. I am amazed each and every time. See, it doesn't take that much to amaze or amuse me.

The designer paper is by GCD Studios which was a 6x6 pad of paper I found an odd lot store. I had never heard of this company but I liked the patterns, so for $2 I thought I would see what I could come up with. I found the seam binding on an Etsy site and I just love it. I bought about 20 different colors and it was only $.30 a yard. Needless to say, I have a small fortune tied up in seam binding since I figured I might not be able to find it again- so I stocked up.

Here is a close up of the flower. I sprayed a bit of glimmer mist on it to give it a bit more color. I believe it was Tattered Rose since that is the bottle that is sitting on the outside of the shelf. The velvet leaves were from Michaels in the bridal section.

Darn- should have cleaned up the bit of glimmer mist that got on the button. Oh well, I guess that is what makes it shabby.

It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day here. They are promising thunderstorms later today, but I'm not holding my breath. If it happens I will just accept it as a wonderful surprise. I have been keeping my eye out for the humming birds. I haven't seen much of them this year. Maybe I should just get a nice tall glass of iced tea and sit out on the deck to keep a watch for them. Sounds like a plan. I hope you can come up with a similar excuse to relax.

Take care and enjoy!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the men out there. Not that any of them are reading my blog, but I thought it would be gesture of kindness none the less. It's the thought that counts-right. These are the Father's Day cards I made this year. I used the new Tim Holtz embossing folder clock parts and some Graphic 45 tags. I colored the brads and dew drops with my Copper Copic marker. I love how you can get coordinating embellishments from a marker. Looove my Copics! A year ago you would have never heard me say that. I dug my heels in and said there was no way I was going to get started on those markers because of the expense and the number of colors they offer. I could see a small (OK large) fortune investing in a new addiction. I finally broke down and the rest is history- all 108 of them. And that is nothing compared to some of the ladies I stamp with.



You can see the embossing a bit better on the image below. I also pulled out my all time favorite Label 4 Spellbinders. The color scheme is pale yellow, black and burnt orange but the yellow sort of faded with the sunlight. You can click on any of the images for a larger view.

Here is another version with the same products. The three tags are actually straight by it looks as if I had a few too many margaritas while making this one. Must be the angle of the camera. Yep definitely the camera angle.

We are planning on a quiet day around the house. It will be gorgeous sitting outside today. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get the thunderstorms that were promised yesterday. I swear- how many jobs could you still keep and be wrong so many times. The weather people have it made. Don't they realize the anticipation they create when they say it is going to rain and the let down when it doesn't. I also have been trying to juggle the sprinkler system around their hit and miss forecasts. Oh well, the sunshine was just as nice, only I have to pay for the watering of the grass and flowers.









I hope you all have a great week. Nothing big planned for my week. Let's hope it stays that way. Cooking out every night and an evening on the patio will suit me just fine at the end of a work day.


Have fun and enjoy!