Winter Scene

Last week I could hardly contain my excitement over Christmas.  I just can't help myself.  Christmas always brings back fond, warm and cozy, happy memories. 

I have been keeping journals the last few months.  Mostly I have been rewriting verses with the hope that they would sink in.  Sometimes I add my own thoughts or little prayers to my almost daily verse writing.  And sometimes I feel inspired to add pictures of some sort. 

I needed to start a new notebook and since I will be running into the month of January I didn't want it to be all Christmas looking and decided to go into snowflakes and such.  Because I live in the desert, it is very difficult to find snow.  So, I went online and found some beautiful winter pictures.  I don't like the cold of winter but I do love the snow.  I found some really great winter scenes at this website.  http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701&va=winter

I took the above picture and added Stickles.  Both Crystal and Icicle Stickles and some Liquid White Pearls.  I used my newest little toys (Big Shot by Stampin' Up) and (Tim Holtz Alterations Townscape) the other day and cut out a row of houses on colorful paper.  I covered the houses in Crystal Stickles and added the Liquid White Pearls to the roof tops and house fronts to give it dimension and make it look like snow.  I then added the Townscape cut out to give the picture a pop of color.

I hope you enjoy this wintry image!

Christmas

First, let me make a disclaimer that once again I didn't get my Christmas cards out.  So for my family and friends it will once again be a New Years Card most probably.

Second, I also didn't get Hanukkah Cards done this year so to my Jewish Family and Friends, Happy Hanukkah.  Hanukkah 2011 started the evening of Tuesday, December 20 and ends Tuesday, December 28.

Thirdly, I did make three Christmas Cards; they were for the teachers at my children's school.  They came out so warm and cheery that I thought I would share them with you. 

DABBING AWAY

Once again I put my Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers to work. I dabbed away with Celery, Sunshine Yellow and Pearl and put a simply stated Happy Birthday on the front.

I used Sail Boat Blue and Pearl for the background.  I also took a paint brush and went over the bird with the same colors.  For the branch I used one of my Stampin' Up markers.

 Once I got started dabbing away, I got carried away.  I wanted to try different colors and mixtures and styles.  I first stamped away with the presents stamp from one of my Stampin' Up sets.  I then went over the stamp images with the dabbers.  I decided to highlight the one image in Turquoises Stickles.

This one I used Celery and Red Pepper on the background and then dabbed the Red Pepper over my "Celebrate You" stamp also from Stampin' Up.  I put a dot of Black Diamond Stickles in the center of each of the Celebrate You image.

 Once again I took a paint brush and went over the bird with Pool and Pearl.  I outlined the bird in in Patina.  I filled in the white area with Crystal Ice Ice Stickles.

 This one I used Sail Boat Blue, Sunshine Yellow and Pearl.  I dabbed with different colors each of the birthday hats and went over the hats with Stickles as well as going over parts of the card again to give it more sparkle.

I briefly went over the card with my Pool and Pearl Dabbers.  I got the bird to peak out a little and went over the head of the bird with Stickles just to sparkle him up.

A Little Dab Here and There and Pool Update

I LOVE the Adirondack Acrylic Dabber Paint by Ranger Ink.  They are so versatile.  I have been using the Pearl one for about a year now with various projects.  It adds a beautiful shimmer to projects.  Recently I tried some new things with my dabbers.  For the first time I took the chance with my rubber stamps and dabbed the paints on them.  I love the bold color that is left behind and also it is fun to touch because it creates a little texture.  The fun part is dabbing or painting your stamp and then dabbing it over with one of the metallic dabbers. 

This is a card project that I worked on for mothers of my MOPs group.  It was a fairly simple project because there were a lot of card with little time.  This is an example of  how you can make  an elegant card quickly.  I just added pretty paper and tried something new by dabbing paint with my paint dabbers  instead of using regular ink on stamps. 

I bought some letters a while ago for my one daughter.  I was waiting until the right time.  I had read something about engaging your children with your craft projects and realized I should just give up my idea and let her do what she wants with the letters since it is for her.  My younger daughter wanted her own letters to paint and so she got some too.  I want to hang these up in there room so I'm delighted with the results.  Both girls painted their letters with acrylic paint and then went over some of the letters by just dabbing circles on them with the paint dabbers and then they added some bling to their letters as well.

First there was the breaking of the ground and clearing away the grass, and then they came with a Bobcat and dug a huge hole that I've been looking at now for a couple of weeks. They then added medal bars to keep the structure for the shockcrete.   Last Friday they came and sprayed the shockcrete.  Today they are coming to lay out the decking.  It is fun to watch the progression of our pool.  I am hoping that it is done by Labor Day but cannot plan anything yet because it will be done when it is done and not before.  At least I have my friend Julie's annual pool party!

Created ByHand Challenge - Peridot/Shades of Green

I learned a new word today.  Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one color, an olive green.  It also is August birthstone, and I since I have a long time friend whose birthday is in August, I should have known what Peridot means.  However, now I know, and it is indeed a a very beautiful colored gem.  

Thank you to Created by hand Challenge/Quietfire Creations for their Peridot/Shades of Green challenge http://quietfire.ning.com/group/createdbyhandchallenge which had expanded my mind and creativity today.  I woke up early thinking about what I was going to do with this challenge and I was very eager to get started.  But first, there was work (I work from home part time) and then I needed to get the children off to school.  I knew that I wanted to use my Tim Holtz Regal Flourish textured folder and I wanted to try an Adirondack Dabber (Celery) with Pearl Dabber.  I also knew that I wanted to use it as a frame so I took my Spellbinders Custom Design Die Template Elegant Ovals (Our Daily Bread http://www.ourdailybreaddesigns.com/images/ODBD_Labels_One.jpg) and put it through my Cuddlebug so I would have an opening in the middle for me to decorate.  I then used my Tim Holtz blending tool and alcohol ink applicator tools and various Distress Inks:  Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Pine Forest.  I stamped my floral background (Stampin' Up) in Crushed Olive and the bird (Stampin' Up) I stamped off once with Pine Forest.  I then used stamps from Our Daily Bread Eternity stamp set.  I finished it off with 3 brads from Stampin' Up.


Thank you for looking.  I was on a bit of a roll today.  I used several of my Adirondack Dabbers and hope to show those off tomorrow.

 

RU! RU! RU!

If you are ever trying to make a special card for someone, there are lots of fun ways to customize.  Once I was asked to make a card for a nursing student that graduated and found a nurse stamp.  The past couple of weeks I added buttons that represent or symbolize things that my in-laws enjoy.  And I even managed to find a paper that had Coney Island on it for a nostalgia piece for my mother-in-law who grew up there.  I recently was asked to make another graduation card.  I could have just put a graduation cap on the front and be done with it.  However, I decided to print out the Rutgers "R" and color it in to make it a special card to give to this graduate.  I used the red and black colors and black ribbon and tied it into a bow and add a pearl bead in the middle to give it a nice touch.  When I use people stamps, I love dressing them up.  It reminds me of being a kid and playing with paper dolls.  To make an outfit with designs on it, all you need to do is stamp the same image on designed paper, cut the area out and lay on top of the original image and glue it down. 

Today I am meeting with my MOPS friends and then my mother-in-law.  I am hoping to have time to try the Created ByHand Challenge.  In the meantime here is the link, if you want to try it out http://createdbyhandchallenge.wordpress.com/.

Texas Hold'em Card

I promised myself I wasn't going to make another birthday card for my brother-in-law that had a game theme.  However, when I was shopping for something 3 dimensional for my mother-in-law's birthday card a few weeks ago, I came across this fun package of buttons "In the Money".  I just knew I could use them for Jeff's birthday card.  So I had the buttons, but I didn't have any paper with card or dice images so I was a bit at a loss.  I decided to look around Splitcoast Stampers.  I came across this project
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1605696?&si=dice
that inspired me very much and thought I could alter a playing card from a deck that was missing some cards.  I decided to use a Queen of Spades and thankfully, that card was there. 

I first put some glaze over the card because I wanted to make it shiny.  I then decided to use Gold Stickles.  I had wanted to alter the card some more by changing out the queen but I didn't like the way it looked and so just decided to stay with the queen.  I first had it against red paper which looked okay but new it needed more than just the card and some buttons.  I looked through my collection of papers that I just purchased not sure what I would find, but I had this beautiful gold and white paper that I thought I would use for some of my Christmas paper and knew it would make a perfect background and cut that down so the red paper would frame it and then put everything together.

Lindascozycraftcorner's photostream

Lindascozycraftcorner's photostream on Flickr.

Our yard is being transformed. After 7 years of living in hot, dry and sunny Arizona, we are getting a pool. We are in the midst of the process and having a lot of fun.

Only Ovals and Brads

This is just a quick post today as I need to do somethings and head over to my in-laws to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday today.  Happy Birthday Jeff!

This is not his card.  I don't think he would appreciate the sparkling blue brads I used and I can't see him appreciating the blond little girl holding flowers.  I did make this card with a friend in mind, and it answered the Created ByHand Challenge "Only Ovals and Brads" http://createdbyhandchallenge.wordpress.com/.

This coming week:  Pool update, Vegas style birthday card and a card for a Rutgers grad.  

Happy Belated Birthday and some muses

"Funny things about birthdays.  They come once year."  This year we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday.  My father-in-law's birthday was yesterday so I want to make sure I do a "shout out" to him also.  I had a lot of fun putting my mother-in-law's card together.  I told myself a long time ago not to buy paper unless I have a specific purpose because I was purchasing paper and not using it.  However, there is a store in my town Paper Vineyard that has the best selection of papers.  They carry paper from 7 Gypsies and Graphics 45 and that is just two of many.  Anyway, I purchased this paper knowing that at some point I would use it. 

My mother-in-law practically grew up at Coney Island.  On my Graphics 45 paper one of the cut outs had a picture of Coney Island so I used that as my inspiration for my mother-in-law's card. I wasn't sure at first how I was going to use this image but then I decided it would be fun to make a collage so I used the other cut outs from the same sheet.  Once I decided on the placement and attached them, I decided to try a coat of glazing over the collage.

I decided I wanted to add some fun dimensions.  I first added some bling from a package of stickers that I had from Stampin' Up to the card and then I went shopping for something, but I wasn't sure exactly what I would find.  I went to Hobby Lobby and found some really fun buttons.  There was a package of buttons that were sunglasses.  They are from Dress It Up buttons http://dressitup.com/.  I also found another package of shell buttons and I thought they would go perfectly with the card so I bought that package too. 

Finally, I added Distressed Stickles to frame my collage and I added Waterfall Stickles on top of the collage to give a sparkling water effect.

I decided to go antique with my father-in-law's card.  I first took paper that looked like newspaper ads (Stampin' Up) and stained the paper in distress ink, sprayed it with Color Wash Terra Cotta (Ranger Ink)  and  Perfect Pearls Mists heirloom gold.  I used several Tim Holtz® Idea-ology™ | Paperie alvage Stickers - Lost & Found.  In this pack there are license plates from most of the different states.  I chose to use 4 different plates from states that my father-in-law lived, and a July calendar and a theater ticket stub sticker.  I distressed the stickers with distress inks and heirloom gold Perfect Pearls Mists.  I punched out and distressed the label and simply used the stamp from Stampin' Up "Let's Celebrate!" stamp. 

So, Happy Belated Roberta and Leo!

Now with Emily off to Kindergarten, what is a mom suppose to do? That has been the number one question I have been asked this past year. I have many an unfinished project that needs to be done, and I am quite looking forward to completing these projects.

Yesterday  after I dropped off my children at school, I came home and put my breakfast together.  I have to say, it was very nice to be able to put my breakfast together and get to eat without 5 interruptions.  I decided to go back to eating fruit in the morning as I am on a quest to eat healthier and lose some (well I should be truthful - A LOT- of weight).

Then I set out to declutter our breakfast bar.  I guess I do miss the "mom" that has been frequently called out the past 11 years, because I decied to go check on Emily at lunch time.  Of course, I also had a reason for checking on her.  On Monday when I made sure the lunch boxes were all cleaned out, I realized that Emily never opened her drink.  I asked her why she didn't drink it, and she said that even though she raised her hand no one helped her.  I'm not sure if that is the case or not.  I am sure that the first day of school with Kindergartners can be pretty hectic so I decided I would make sure that she got some help with her drink and went to visit her at lunch.  Here she is and she got her drink opened by one of the lunch aids.  Hm, well maybe I guess I will go one more day just to make sure all is well with her drink today.  Am I being the over concerned parent?  Oh, I hope not.  Of course, perhaps, they would appreciate the extra set of hands.