I know! It has been ages!!!

You ever think ... "Oh, I really should go and do...?" And then you keep putting it off and putting it off until it really becomes embarrassing? Yeah, that is me and my blog. 

I went through a crafting slump and wasn't doing much (I'm still not doing a whole lot) and I would think, 'I have nothing to blog about" so I stayed away.

I don't have much to share but it is ridiculous to stay away!

Like I said, I haven't really done much. I have a few journal pages (but nothing worth sharing)
But I have created lots of cards!

Let's start with a project I did last night. A Taco Pop-Up gift card holder.  :-)

Have a family member who loves Mexican food? Want to give them a gift card with style?

Well here you go! Who wouldn't love a taco with money stashed in the meat? lol

I think I will add a dollop of 'sour cream' so I can add a sentiment.  :-)

If you would like to create one yourself you can find the Cricut Explore file here.


Like I said earlier, I have made A LOT of cards. I won't bore you with pictures of them all but I will share a couple of my favorites. 

I created this fun card for my niece. She turned, um.... well I think she turned 20 this year. I am so bad with keeping track of their ages (because the older they get means I am getting older too and I don't want to think about that!)

I had so much fun making this card. The mirror was done on my Minc so that it really is shiny and reflective. The girl's dress was also run through the Minc and the pattern is purple foil but it doesn't show in the photo. My niece loved it.  :-)

So, last year, my brother in law made the comment that everyone gets cool cards except him. Since no one had ever told me his birth date it made it a little difficult to know when to send him a card. Well, I made up for it this year.

He is an avid hunter so I went wild with the hunting theme.

This box card includes a duck, a pair of geese, a bear, a deer, a deer head mounted on the wall, a stump to sit on to rest and a hunter. I embossed wood grain on the sides of the box for even more outdoorsiness (yep I am making up words here! lol)

According to my sister, he totally loved everything about it! Whew! 

And lastly, I have to always be learning something new or I feel like my brain is going stagnant.

So, I am teaching myself cookie decorating.
I tried doing the flooded icing techniques....I need A LOT more practice!!!
I was getting a bit frustrated so I changed gears and tried something more in my wheelhouse.

Painted cookies!

Now I still have to flood the icing base (and am still not good at it) but then I get to go wild with paint (food colors).

Of course my first subject was Tucker. He always was and always will be my favorite model. (I still miss him)  I like the back view cookie better than his face cookie but they both tasted yummy. :-)

In case you forgot what he looked like. I miss that little face!!! 

And then I created a Wookie cookie.
My sister named her cat Wookie. I have no idea why. She doesn't look like that big, hairy Star Wars beast. Although my sis says she can be a holy terror lol

Here is what Wookie looks like for real (my sister has her shaved every year because I guess Wookie is not into grooming and keeping all those tangles at bay). This was taken the day she got shaved. She looks so sad. 

Isn't she cute? I cannot believe she ever does anything wrong with that sweet little face. :-)


The pic I used was last year's shaved pic and she looks more angry than sad lol

I hope I haven't bored you too much. Hopefully it won't be another 8 months before I blog again. :-)

Twice in One Week?

Yep, I am back already!  :-)

I thought I would share a couple more projects I found on my camera and also a work in progress. 

The Bad Babies had a tag swap in July. We could submit either 3 or 6. I struggled to find ideas for 3. No way was I going to make to six!

Above are my 3 tags.
As you can see I included one of my chibis. What can I say, that is what I am focusing on right now lol

I used alcohol inks for the background then did a gel medium transfer for the eyes.

Tag #2 was Gelli printed I then added images of day lilies and a Victorian woman.

And lastly, I spritzed a tag with Dylusions sprays, I then painted a peacock feather with acrylics. Next came a gel transferred peacock then a definition of peacock from an antique dictionary. Finally another spritz of Dylusions.

I really struggled with these but I am pleased with the final products.

I told you I am obsessed with Chibis...well maybe I didn't say 'obsessed' but I think I am!

Here is one of my cards from the ICAD challenge. The prompt was Disco.

I think he was the first boy I drew. (I have only drawn maybe 2 or 3 since....boys are yukky lol)

And my sister, seeing all the projects I post on Facebook, asked me to draw her dog and my other sister's cat together (even though they live hundreds of miles apart).

My sister's dog loves to play with socks (or so they tell me lol) My sister's cat does not seem to be amused haha  I seem to be much better at drawing cats than dogs!

And now, here is my current work in progress.

I did the pencil sketches on tracing paper so that I could easily transfer the lines onto card stock with a light box. 

Here is my initial transferred lines just begging for color.

It took me several days (and a trip to the local craft store for a couple more pens) to color in all 4 characters.

I am currently working on their environment. I used watercolor for the road but am not please with how the cardstock is buckling so I am now trying to figure out what I want to use for the ground and sky.

So that is where I am at right now....stuck lol

Maybe something will come to me while I am working this week. :-)

Happy Crafting and have a wonderful week!

Can you believe it is already August???

I know, I have not posted in a while. My excuse....um, sorry, don't have one. lol

So, I thought I would pop in and share a little of what I have been doing lately.

In my last post I shared some of my favorite cards from the first 30 days of the Index Card a Day challenge over at Daisy Yellow.

I am proud to say that I completed the 61 day challenge. I did not skip a day and I ended on time.  Now, I won't say that every card I created was a work of art. Some of them are pretty bad lol  But I created a card EVERY day and that is the challenge.  I also stayed on prompt for every card.  Yep, I am very proud of myself....and feeling a bit lost without the daily challenge.

So here are some of my favorites from July.

The prompts from left to right:
Top Row: Queen of Hearts, Chess, Face, Flag
Middle Row: Definition, Parachute
Bottom Row: Bridge or Gin Rummy, Raindrops, Weather

I found myself drawing more in those 2 months then I had in years....and loving it!  I also had strange and unexpected side effect. I became hooked on Chibis. Yes, those cute little childlike Japanese anime characters. 

Someone in the group posted a card one day stating she had bought her daughter a learn to draw chibis book and decided to try it herself. Her little people were adorable and made me want to try it too.

I ordered a couple books from Amazon (How To Draw Manga Chibis & Cute Critters by Samantha Whitten and Jeannie Lee and Manga For the Beginner, Chibis by Christopher Hart)

I am having so much fun! My kitten from the Raindrops card was my first attempt at an animal chibi. I love how he turned out.

I am finding that I am better at drawing the faces than I am at bodies and clothing....but I am loving the learning process so I draw at bit a few days a week. I think I am getting better....not sure how hubby feels since I keep bugging him with 'how does this look?' haha

So, here she is, my very first chibi. Her face is cute and done fairly well. Her body and clothes...well there are issues lol I drew her on July 17.

Red Riding Hood. Again, I really like the face but the hands, legs and feet are too teeny/scrawny. Drawn on July 19.

Now we jump ahead a couple weeks. I was stuck in bed with severe back spasms so I had hubby bring me my sketch pad, pencils and markers. I decided to concentrate on faces and hair for the day. I wanted to create expressive faces and cute hair. July 31

Moving forward to today, August 7. I have been wanting, since day 1, to create the cast of the Wizard of Oz. I may have jumped the gun but I am having a good time and learning as I go.

Here is the pen drawing. 

I have started adding color. I am using Copic markers. Now if you have read my blog over the past few years then you are probably shocked. I swore I would never jump on the Copic bandwagon! Who in their right mind spends $6+ on a single marker? Well, obviously, now I do. I found that for the first time in my life I could not get the look I wanted with pencils (and I am really good with pencils - if I do say so myself lol)  

So each payday I head to the local craft store and pick up a couple. Not a huge hit to my budget and I slowly increase my stash. Tomorrow I need to pick up a couple for this piece as all I currently have are flesh and hair colors. Dorothy said she does NOT want a peach or brown colored dress!

But fear not, I have not totally abandoned my Explore lol

My nephew's birthday is next week so I created this fun box card for him from the Summer Box Cards set at SVGCuts.com

I used my Minc to create the gold foil stars. I love how the Minc can give any project a little extra 'pop'.

Well that's all for now.
Stay cool in this summer heat and if you are on the west coast of the USA, try to stay smoke free. The fires are really bad this year and the air quality is becoming very hazardous. 

Until next time. Happy Crafting!

One Day At a Time

The month of June has just flown by! It seems like I just posted last week but no, it was a month ago! How can that be???

I feel like I haven't been busy creating anything lately and yet I have been. I joined the Index Card a Day challenge over at Daisy Yellow. And I can proudly say that I have not missed a day yet!

Now do not worry, I am not going to bombard you with 27 index cards lol
I will just show you a few of my favorites. You can see all my cards on my ICAD Pinterest board. 

I found that for the most part the cards I like the most are the ones that pushed me out of my comfort zone or ones that I did things I never did before or not in a very long time.

I am using 3 x 5 unlined index cards.

Ok, so this one doesn't fall into any of those above mentioned categories lol  It is just me being my quirky/goofy self. The prompt was Carnival. I used watercolor pencils to create the tent and then added the stamped images. The Chicken is from Art Gone Wild, Dog from Rubber Stamps of America, Elephant from ImaginAir, Ticket and Clock from Tim Holtz.

 The prompt was Draw a Map. I immediately thought pirate treasure map. I wanted it to look like old parchment that was rolled and crumbling on the edges. It has been many many years since I tried to create dimension and 3D effects. I think I succeeded in the rolled edge on the right.
This piece was done entirely with Prismacolor pencils. 

 I have never drawn a car in my life. All the boys in school would sit and draw/doodle cars all day long. I'm a girl, I doodled flowers and horses lol

The prompt was Taxi. I wanted a vintage looking taxi. I found a photo of an old 50's Chevy taxi and went from there. This was all hand drawn with graphite pencil then colored with Derwent Graphitint pencils and Prismacolor pencils.

The license plate is a salute to one of my favorite TV shows. (how come it isn't in reruns like all the other shows from that time???)

 The prompt was Carrot and Lemon. I used Distress inks to created the carrot colored background and then painted the lemon with acrylics. I haven't done any still life paintings/drawing since high school and I don't think we ever drew fruit. lol

Ok, back to goofy! The prompt was Blueberry and Plum. I was googling blueberry just so I would have a real subject to draw/paint when I found a photo of this single blueberry. For some reason it said 'baby bird' and here we are. lol
The background is Distress Inks, the nest is acrylics, the tree is drawn with Sharpie pen. 

The prompt was Salt and Pepper.  Here we are way outside the comfort zone. I initially was going to find a photo of an 'Old Salt' and create a collage but instead, I did a portrait. I have never done a portrait like this before. I drew the man and then colored him with Prismacolor pencils. I then added the dog. (my aunt had a miniature schnauzer name Pepper so now this sailor does too) The clouds were created with chalks. 

Prompt of the day....Wabi Sabi. I had to google that one and I am still not 100% sure what it is but from what I understand it is seeing beauty in everything good or bad or falling apart. 
Our fence is old, cracked, weathered. The neighbors grapevines are growing through some of the spaces between the boards (don't get me started on how much that annoys me!!!)

I wanted to try and draw this old, cracking knot hole. I used primarily graphite pencil with a little Prismacolor and Graphitints thrown in for color.

I included a photo of the fence so you can see what I was actually trying to draw. :-)

Psychedelic. I didn't like it when it was originally popular so I was not too keen on using it as a prompt but the idea came to me and I ran with it and I am thrilled with the results. 
The hair was colored with Sharpies and Bic permanent markers. The moon was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The background is black Sharpie.

Oh but look! I did things other than a card a day lol

The latest building from SVG Cuts is the Country Market set. 

It took me about a week, working a couple hours a day, to complete. I used my Cricut Explore to really personalize all the signs.

I love how this turned out! It is so cute and vintage American small town.

And lastly....you thought we would never get to the end didn't you?

I am in a tag swap with the BadBabies. We are using the big shipping tags.

I used Distress Inks for the background.
I then painted the peacock feather.
The definition is from a really old dictionary and I printed "Beauty" on my computer.

It needed something more so I did a gel medium transfer and added the peacock, glued down the definition and word. Added some distress inks to Beauty and spritzed the definition with Dylusions to settle them into the piece. The colors are not so muted in person and I am very happy with the results.

Well that about covers this past month. I hope every one is staying cool in these record breaking high temperatures and getting lots of projects created.

I have another month of index cards to create...and very excited to do so! :-)

Happy Summer!

Loving this beautiful weather!

The rain has finally stopped and we have had a full week of sunshine and warmth. Most people would head outside for picnics, camping, hiking. Not me. I head out to the garage to refinish furniture lol

Last weekend (Memorial Day weekend) was gorgeous. The rain had stopped, the sun was sort of peeking out and the temperatures peaked in the mid 70s. My husband was looking forward to a weekend in front of the television and playing on his computer. Yeah, I didn't let that happen lol

I have been wanting to get rid of the dresser I have been using...it was a hand me down from my inlaws...a bland/blah thing from the 80s. No character and definitely not 'Me'. It clashed with all the antique and vintage style furniture in the room. So I convinced hubby that it was time to refinish the old dresser he had stashed out in the garage.

We estimate, based on wood type and construction, that it is from the 1940s. It was originally stained but at some point in it's life someone spray painted it black and added some hideous gold drawer pulls.

I had already removed some of the pulls before I remembered to take a picture.  Poor thing, it was in pretty rough shape and yet still very structurally sound.....and weighs a tons! lol

I primed it and then painted on several coats of Behr's Cottontail latex paint. I let it dry overnight then hit is with a sander (and a bit of hand sanding) to bring back that aged (and well loved) look.

I then hit all the home improvement stores to find the perfect pulls and fell in love with some that have a dark bronze base and porcelain looking inlay.

The fronts of the drawers have a swirled texture in the wood. I didn't know how this would look when I distressed the paint but I tried to use a light hand and I am thrilled with the results.  And I just LOVE the new pulls!  :-)

It now has a whole new life and although hubby was not happy about losing his weekend, we are both very happy with the results.

But of course, that is not the only thing I have been up to  :-)

My postcard swap items are due in mid June. I completed 2 of the 3 a while ago (see prior posting) and have been stuck with trying to come up with something for number 3.

I finally went digging in my old photo stash.

I found this girl proudly showing off her dress. It isn't a really fancy dress but she seems very happy so I wanted to send her to a dance. I went searching online and found this ticket to a prom "Under the Big Top". Yep, I could see her wearing that dress to a circus themed prom.  I added one of her old hair ribbons and the chorus to one of the songs they played that night.  :-)

Here is the complete set I am sending for the postcard swap.

And lastly, I got a new toy a couple weeks ago. I have a love/hate relationship with the HSN craft days. I see so many things that are new and interesting and thankfully I can usually resist (or only make a small purchase). But I knew this item was coming and I was positive that I didn't need it...and then I watched them demo it and I HAD to have it.

Anna Griffin's mini Minc machine

Have you seen this thing? It is a foil laminator and was just too cool for me to pass up. It had a premier price of only $69, much less than I have paid for other machines in my craft room heehee. (I used it in the prom postcard in case you didn't notice lol)

To be able to add foil accents to projects is just too cool. And I wanted to be able to combine it with other items in my craft room.

Experiment #1: stamp rubber stamp images, scan them then use my Explore to Print Then Cut them.
Then add foil to create fancy card embellishments.

Voila!  How cool would that look on a birthday card?  A shiny light pink and gold cupcake?!  Love it!

Experiment #2: scan images out of my Dover clip art books (I have a couple dozen of them lol) and then print and foil.

The cat is from a clip art book. the flower background is one of the pre-printed backgrounds that came with the Minc. (it came with over 150 printed items including backgrounds, sayings and images....an awesome collection)

The foiled the cat with gold and the flowers with teal. What is really a very simple and basic card has now become elegant. Love it!!!

I am having way too much fun!  I foiled the text for my nephew's graduation card....but haven't photographed it yet (have to remember to do that).

And I made this card for my mom just so she can see exactly what I keep babbling about every time I call her lol

The bad thing about foil is that it is very difficult to photograph!
The background is another of the pre-printed, Anna Griffin backgrounds foiled in silver. The Hello is one of the pre-printed sayings foiled in rose-gold. The bouquet is a Print Then Cut from my Explore.

Well, that's all for this week. I hope you are all having beautiful weather and get to enjoy it in any way that makes you happy.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you wonderful moms out there I hope your children shower you with love today.

I have been absent for a few weeks. Work has been such a bear that I run screaming from my desk each day and don't want to go near another one until I am forced out of bed the next morning. But projects and deadlines exist and I did manage to get a few things completed since I was last here.

The Bad Babies are trying out Pocket Letters. It seems to be the latest craze and we thought we would give it a go. If you haven't heard of them just hit up Google or Pinterest...there are tons of videos and blogs about them.

You would think that filling 9 slots with ATCs and ephemera would be easy....or at least I did. It was much tougher than I expected. I had ideas on what I wanted to do. I even made lists of things I could put in each pocket....and then I got stuck.

How do I decorate each pocket?
Should I have a theme for the whole thing?
Should I try to stick to a color palette?
I know nothing about my recipient...what if she hates everything I put in it?

What I thought would be a 2-3 day project took me almost a month (remember I also had that work issue making me dread any desk in my house lol)

Here is my final Pocket Letter.

 

 

I didn't know if she preferred brights or pastels so the corners are bright and the rest are pastels with the middle possibly going either way lol

The top, center pocket has a packet of flower seeds.

The center pocket with the typewriter has my letter.

Of course the Tea Time has the required tea bag (I hate tea and have no idea why that is a 'rule' for these but whatever)

The bottom right is a collage of postage stamps and the pocket is jammed full of stamps from all over the world.

 

I used vinyl on a couple pockets to hint what was inside.

 

 

This pocket is full of stamped quotes. Great for adding to projects.

Here is a stack of Gelli Print backgrounds cut down to 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 for ATCs.

I also created some ATCs myself.

 

 

I honestly cannot remember what I tucked behind this 'Absolutely' card. Isn't that sad?! I mailed this out several weeks ago and my brain is mush these days....obviously lol.

 

The background colors are Gelatos. The woman is a stamp from Art Impressions (L-3103) The flourish is from Tim Holtz French Market set.

 



One of the ATCs had die-cuts behind it. It think it is this "trendy" one since she is a cut from the Cricut cart Forever Young. The background is a gelli print.

So that went out the door and I was on to the next project(s)...


I have probably mentioned this before over the years, my parents birthdays, Mother's day and Father's day all fall within a one month period. That keeps me hopping for several weeks as I try to get everything made, purchased, packed and mailed.

I made the SVG Cuts Peony Cottage for my Mom. I hope she likes it. I think it is adorable!

For my Dad, I made this cute Smores box from the SVG Cuts Camp Firefly set. It is just big enough to tuck a gift card inside.

My Mom loves tote bags. She says she has tons of them. She rarely buys them. She gets them free when stores are giving them away as promotions or she gets them as gifts from us kids.

I was in the middle of this project when my mom told me she had received an early Mother's Day gift from one of my sisters.....a large tote made from recycled sails. Mom was very excited about it. I am not upset but I was a bit bummed....I was making my mom a large tote from some Gelli Prints I created just for this project. :-(

So, I had to step back for a couple days and rethink. I ended up changing the project a bit. I went from large tote to not quite as large purse/tote with a shoulder strap and magnetic clasp.

The above picture is the front stamped with Fred B. Mullett stamps Lil Ox Eye Oreo, Seahorse 2 and Big Pompano.

And a note about Fred B. Mullett....I bought some stamps directly from his website. The customer service I received blew me away! I received a personal email thanking me for my order and a request that I let them know when it arrived and that he would look into possibly cutting the shipping cost on my order. A couple days later I received a reduction on my shipping! I emailed them back upon receipt of my stamps (which was much sooner than I had expected!) and received another personal and humorous email in return again thanking me for my purchase and wishing me years of enjoyment with my new stamps. No one does that anymore. Everything is automated replies. This was such a breath of fresh air. If I was not already a huge fan of his stamps I certainly would be now. So, if you cannot find his stamps in your local stores don't hesitate to order from him directly. You will not be disappointed.

And back to my Mom's tote/purse ...

Here is the back. This is stamped with a small school of the Lil Ox Eye Oreos, a Rockfish and Silver Salmon.

But since I was now making a purse instead of a tote I added a couple more goodies inside.

A pouch for tissues and a zipper pouch (I do not have a lot of experience installing zippers so hopefully Mom doesn't inspect too closely lol)

And of course, cards...

I love this hummingbird from Art Nouveau.

And my Dad's birthday card which comes from Wild Card 2.

This purse comes from SVG Cuts Luxury Handbag kit. I took the gift card panel from gift card holder in the set and added it to the Gal Pal card so that it is now a gift card holder and a flip open card. That probably doesn't make much sense but if you view the set it might lol


I think that covers everything....you should all know by now that you are in for a picture heavy post if I haven't been around for a few weeks lol

Thank you all for visiting and Happy Mother's Day!