I love my playtime!

I still can't believe we are in the middle of May. I swear Christmas was just a couple weeks ago! But I am very thankful the winter weather is gone. :-)

 

 

I have squeezed in lots of play time over the past couple weeks. It is sometimes a struggle to balance life and play but so worth it in the end when I feel happy and have a stack of lovely things to share. :-)

 

 

I'm going to start with my Cricut projects

 

 

Last weekend we were supposed to go to a citywide yard sale. As I have mentioned many times, I love yard sales and flea markets. I love coming home with lots of treasures and art supplies for very little money! But last weekend it was raining so hard that if you were outside more than 10 seconds you were drenched (and freezing cold). So, after attempting a couple houses, I gave up, came home and put a batch of chili in the crockpot.....and created this...

 

Just a little something to remind myself that even rainy days aren't all bad. She comes from the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.

As we were eating our chili (and homemade cornbread) for dinner, we watched Despicable Me. And I just had to make a Minion card. I found a Minion svg file and downloaded it into the Explore. It cut out great!

According to my Google searches on the Minion language, Bello means Hello.....who knows but it looked cute to me lol

Even though I have already mailed out my Father's day card to my dad, hubby still needed one for his dad. The fishing creel is from Everyday Paper Dolls, the pole and fish are from Outdoor Man.

Yes, I know, you can only catch one fish per line but the card just looked so much better with two. Artistic license lol

Hubby's aunt is turning 90 next month and loves all the cards I make for her (to the point that she carries them around to show all her friends - and yes, she is out and about golfing everyday, lunches, works out at the gym.....I hope I am half as active as she is in my later years!!!). I made this card using Freshly Picked for the potted geraniums and Elegant Edges for the 'tablecloth'. The tag is from Picturesque.

My mother-in-law's birthday is in July and since I was in card making mode I went ahead and made up one for her as well.  I used the brand new Anna Griffin Summer Soiree cartridge for the butterfly card base. The layered butterflies are from Paper Lace.

I managed to find a little bit of stamping time as well.  I love the CTMH Give a Lift balloon set .
I used ultra fine black embossing powder to make the lines really pop. I then tinted it with watercolor pencils. I used distress inks and water to tint the flowers.

The back is blank so I can use it as a gift tag on some future date.

And finally....yes, I am almost done lol  I loved Tim Holtz May 2014 tag. I like them every month but some months call out to me more than others. This is one of those months.

I wanted my tag to be a reflection of things I love. I have a seashell because I would rather be at the beach than any place else. The dragonfly I tangled onto a game tile years ago then tossed it into a drawer because I couldn't decide what to do with it. I love dragonflies, I love zentangles and I collect hundreds of various game tiles for art projects. The postage stamp is there because I snag stamps wherever I can to use in projects of all types. They are such cool little works of art.  I love and collect vintage buttons (I have at least 10 quart mason jars full lol). The moth is rubber stamped, how could I showcase things I love and collect without having something rubber stamped??? As for the brass flower...well, I liked how it curved around the hole in the tag and I have had that thing sitting in my ephemera drawer for at least 20 years and thought it finally needed a home. :-)

And lastly, the debossed word....this is from Tim Holtz new ShadowPress embossing folders. They are so cool!!!
I embossed it on kraft paper as a test to see how it looked figuring I would use a different paper for the actual project then couldn't decide on what paper to use. I let it sit for the night and woke up with what I thought was a great idea...I would antique it! I love antiques!!! It fit perfectly with my theme! I swiped a few strokes of Ceramcoat Alpine over the paper. Once that was dry I applied a coat of Americana's Weathered Wood crackle medium. You have to wait at least 3 hours (so I hit the yard sales for a while) then I made random swipes with Ceramcoat's Ivory over the top making sure to let some of the green and the kraft paper show through. Lastly, once the paint was dry, I rubbed Distress Ink Walnut Stain all over and then buffed off some of it. I love how it turned out!

I hope you all have a very creative week! We have a 3 day weekend coming up. I am hoping to squeeze in a few hours of art time (between all the BBQs and fun) :-)