Friday, August 19, 2016

33 Days Until Fall

Summer is probably my least favorite season just because of the heat. And with the high temperatures we have been having it makes me crave Fall even more! They are saying we will hit 110 degrees tomorrow. That is just crazy!!!

Not venturing outside gives a person more time to play in the art room.  :-)

I am not sharing much today because most of what I did was trying out new dies and such that came this week....almost like Christmas lol

I did actually toss together a few cards.

Like I said above, I am ready for fall!



I am still playing around with my Tim Holtz 'crazy' stamps while I wait for the dogs to arrive. My order is supposed to be here sometime in September. :-D

The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug. It is part of a set of folders (but I only have this one I bought in a clearance bin at the local craft store). I think the set might have been Happy Haunting.

The images were colored with Copic markers.


 This adorable little kitty is from Close To My Heart. It is from the August stamp of the month set S1608 Purr-fect Halloween. The cat body has no eyes or adornments but lots of stamps to create a costume with 4 sets of eyes, a couple hats, the bat (which I used as a bowtie), a pennant banner and some phrases. I also added the jack o'lantern from Tim Holtz's mini Bird Crazy stamp set.  All images were colored with Copic markers.



I have a friend whose birthday is on Halloween so she gets 2 cards from me every year. :-)
I used the Acorn Scatter embossing folder from Anna Griffin's summer/fall folder set. The leaves and feather are from her summer/fall die set. The sentiment was written by my Cricut Explore and I am 99% sure it is from an Anna Griffin cartridge.


Close To My Heart released a brand new Cricut cartridge on August 1st. (and retired several of their older cartridges)
The new cart is called Flower Market and has tons of flowers - both 3D and 2D. I thought these 2D ranunculus were very pretty. Lots of cool containers to display your flowers like the jar with lace band I used. They also have fun icons and 2 fonts. It is a gorgeous set of images.
You can get one from my friend Debbie on her CTMH site

I used Darice's Fall Leaf Background folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.


I told you I was trying out new toys this week. Not only did I get a cartridge and stamps, I also got some new cutting dies. This lacy oval is one of Crafters Companion's Downton Abbey dies. You can cut the lace to be a free standing oval or cut it like I did so that it is in the paper (no outside edge). It then comes with several smaller oval dies that fit in the center. I also got the circle, square and rectangle sets.....What? I had a coupon and they were grouping 2 sets together in each package. Trust me it was a good deal lol

And now I have officially made my first Christmas card of 2016.

But I am not quite done.


Sometimes I just get in the mood to play with supplies I haven't pulled out in a while. 
That would be my embossing diffusers from Tim Holtz. This is the circle one.
I used Anna Griffin's Fluted Damask folder. I then stamped the cupcake (CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut bundle D1497) in 2 colors (CTMH Hollyhock and Cocoa)
I felt it still needed something so I cut some 3D flowers on the Explore and glued them around the lower left edge of the circle.
I think it turned out cute and now I have another card on hand for....whatever.  :-)

So that covers most of what I did this past week.
I hope you are all staying cool wherever you may be.

Happy Crafting!

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Until next year...

No, I am not going away for a year... well let's hope not anyway lol

The Index Card a Day challenge is over for this year. The last day was July 31.
I completed all my cards, I just haven't had a chance to get on here and show them to you.

I have the last 2 cards to share with you today.

Day 60: Sorbet



I am not a fan of sorbet. I prefer ice cream. :-)  So, I focused more on the ingredients than the actual product lol

This was done with watercolor and Inktense pencils.


Day 61: Path


This verse and song immediately popped into my head so I went with it.

Again, watercolor and Inktense pencils and Sharpie pen.


I want to keep drawing every day but it is so hard to stay motivated so hubby bought me a book called "642 Things to Draw" from Chronicle Books.  It is a large book full of nothing but blank pages with a prompt on each page. Like today was 'desk chair'. Nothing exciting but it made me draw a chair. I have worked through several of the prompts so far....my book now contains a skunk, a seagull, a rolling pin, a hammock....and a few others.  So far I am liking it. I spend about 10 minutes a day with my book and pencil which is always a good thing. 

But, I have been doing other things too. You know we have holidays coming up and I wanted to get started on some cards.

First, my sis-in-law has a birthday in November. Yeah, that is a bit far away but an idea struck so I made the card (it was that or probably forget the idea....or the birthday lol)


This was made with Anna Griffin's Floral cutting dies. I love how simple yet beautiful they are. The background is also from Anna Griffin, her chrysanthemum embossing from from her Summer/Fall embossing folder set. I sanded it after embossing to make the design show up better.

Last time I showed you a Tim Holtz Crazy Cat that I had colored but didn't know where he was going to be used. Well, I put him on a card. I had intended for a cute/quirky card and ended up with a sort of creepy Halloween card. lol


I would be a little freaked out if I saw a 'crazy' bird in a tree calling to me lol

And of course, once you start playing with these birds and cats you can't stop!


Some silly Trick or Treaters


Scaredy Cat!


And of course more cats looking for homes lol

I also thought I would share a few pics from our mini vacation (the reason I didn't get my ICAD cards posted right away)

We headed over to the coast for a long weekend. It was cool and breezy....much nicer than the triple digit temps we get here at home in the summer.


This is Battery Point lighthouse in Crescent City, CA. I did a painting of it for one of my ICADS a couple weeks back.
It was overcast in Crescent City and the wind was blowing like crazy!  We walked way out on the fishing pier to get this great, straight on shot. (and froze our butts off lol)


This is Cape Blanco lighthouse just north of Port Orford, OR.  Normally the winds are so strong it is a struggle to walk around. Not this time, it was down right balmy and calm....and gorgeous!

This lighthouse sits on the farthest west point on the Oregon coast (and some say the farthest most west point of the continental US)



And last, Coquille River lighthouse in Bandon, OR.
It was getting late in the day so I was looking into the sun when taking my pictures. (which is better than standing out in the roaring river I guess lol)

This lighthouses sits in Bullards Beach State Park. It no longer has a light in it but is still a beautiful building and worth the drive out to the beach to see it.

If you want to see and learn more about Oregon lighthouses, hubby and I have a website. It also has information about Oregon covered bridges, vintage camera, trains and of course, Tucker's website. Check it out at http://www.tunnel13.com/

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Crafting!!!