MAIL ART

This is all my mail art I did for the Eiffel Tower Group over at Scrapbook.com. We decided that this is what we would send to our group and then enclose either a handmade gift or something 5.00 or under. I did some handmade things which are the crosses and little owls that follow this mail art post. I thought this was a lot of fun and I used a lot of clip art and/or just picture art and cut things out and glued them on and did some doodling and and other things. I used glitter pens a lot too, they were really pretty in real life. I also made cards to match each mail art. This is the front and back of the envelopes and then the card that was enclosed with each mail art.

sizzix owl and holly berry house stamp cross

These were the 2 handmade items I included in my mail art. The cross is a 4 layer Holly Berry House Stamp that I embossed 4 times and cut out to make each layer. Then of course I had to add some stickles for some bing bam bling glam! The cute little owls are a sizzix die cut in which I made upteen of these little guys. I even have some left over for me! I made all the owls out of scraps which is always nice! I also included a store bought mini clear stamp set. I hope everyone enjoyed them.

Life is heavy....

Yes, life certainly seems heavy these last few weeks and if I get one more phone call with bad news I might just break. Well, I don't think I will break, but I certainly do feel fragile emotionally. I can't stand to get up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror. I have swollen eyes, red eyes and I feel like I look. Usually a good hot shower with some more crying in it helps, well, emotionally helps, doesn't so much help my looks!! LOL..... Tomorrow I we bury my ex-husband and my girls father. I was married to him for 17 years. I have had to plan his service and it has been way harder on me then I think anyone can imagine. I hurt for my girls and we all have a flood of emotions that I am not sure we all quite understand at this moment. Please hold us in prayer.

Bewitched

This lo was done for Tricia's Ready Scrap Go Contest. There are 10 categories that people send in items for and then they hostess divides them up and each person receives a kit to work with. Everyone also sends in 5.00 worth of goodies for the winner to walk away with. You are not allowed to use anything else outside the kit except stamps, ink, paint or anything like that. You must use 80% of the kit. I used 100% of the kit, which means that I used something from each category. Also, I painted my circle purle and inked it to add more purple to my lo. The smaller letters (font mini monograms) I cut out on my cricut and added the lime green stickles. The orange dots are french knots made from the floss. WOW! I finally get to post this to my own gallery! And I have to say that I am thrilled because I won all the goodies for this swap/contest. So, thank you to everyone that voted for my lo. (link to the ready scrap go gallery: http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/98213/view/1815765/-1/0/1.html) I really do love how this turned out! I can't wait to see the goodies I won and to put them to good use!! I REALLY needed a pick me up for my spirit and scrappy tresures always give me a lift!

Mr. Picasso Head

ok... this is a fun little site that my daughter sent me a link to. I could sit here and create fun things on here for some time, just the creative side of me. These are some pieces of art I created at my first sitting! The top one is titled "Wine, Turkey?" and the other two "Tears of a Clown" and "Dreaming in Red" ... LOL.. well you have to name your art work! The site is called Mr. Picassohead... the link is http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html?skin=original After I created these 2 pieces of art, I spent some time looking around at the other art created there... there was some really fun and cool things as well as some really strange things... lol.. but what do you expect from Picasso? I am going back and I think I am going to use these to create some fun and unique note cards, after all it is my original art. I thought how cool is that!?! For one, I most likely wouldn't have created something this unique on my own, and even though you are limited from what you have to choose from it still seems endless as you look through the gallery. You will see how different and unique every one's art is.... it was a lot of fun so go discover the Picasso head in you!! :O)

I love these Cuddlebug Embossing folders and what about this cute little sizzix owl diecut!!

I was just messing around with a few new things I bought. The paisley Cuddlebug embossing folder and this cute little owl from sizzix. I chalked the embossed area with several colors and pieced this cute little owl together... this is pretty simple card. I love those cuddlebug embossing folders, I so want ALL of them!! but I especially want the swiss dot one, but can't seem to find it around here so I guess I will have to order it from cyber space.

I won!

Last week I won this on the Hero Arts Blog!! I was having a down day and when I logged on my computer I had an e-mail that sstated I won this great little RAK!! If you have never been to their blog I suggest you give it a visit. It is a great place for inspiration and techniques, in addition they are always giving away great RAK's, PLUS they have great products. I received this for just leaving a comment as well as 2 other lucky winners that day! My friend Emmy actually won I believe $100.00 worth of free product (her choice) a little while back for winning first place on a great spinner card! I love going anywhere to find inspiration and looking at great creative things that inspire me. Dang, there is soo much out there in cyber space I could literally spend all day just jumping around all the great blogs that are out there. This week on the Hero Arts Blog they are showing some great techniques so stop by and check them out!! And maybe you might just be a lucky winner too at some point! http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/

I don't DO fashion - I AM fashion

I did this lo is for the Eiffel Tower October BOM Challenge - A Childhood Photo or Memory Create a layout using a childhood photo of yourself. If you really and truly do not have one, then scrap about something in your childhood. A memory, a favorite .. whatever. How about a school photo? Points - 25. Twist: Use your favorite colors on this layout and mention what those favorite colors are somewhere on the layout and earn another 10 points!! Deadline: Oct. 1 thru Oct. 31 ok... this is kind of a odd and wild lo!! LOL.. and I am not sure I really even like the lo itself... but I do like the title, picture and journaling! :O) just not the design!!! LOL ok.. we know we all have em! Journaling reads: Well, I certainly had fashion back then OR at least I thought I did! I received this cool outfit for my birthday. It was my favorite thing to wear during that time. I thought it was so cool and pretty; as well as thinking I was so cool and pretty while wearing it! I loved that yellow and green color together. It was so cheery. Notice that even my pony tail bands match my green in the pants. I have to laugh because I am still that way when it comes to matching things. I believe I am in 7th grade here. I was in love with green back then and had a green metallic 10 speed bike also. I am not sure green would be my first choice as my "favorite color" today, but I still do love a good green. To be honest, I don't think I could really narrow any color down to "my favorite" color today. So of course, I must just go with I love them all for different reasons and different uses. I guess I am just a rainbow kind of girl !

missing again...

I certainly seem to be MIA these days, well, from my blog anyway. I received a call Oct. 18th that my ex-husband to my 2 daughters was killed in a tragic accident out of state down in South Carolina. I have to say it was a shock to all of us. Of course it would be to anyone, right? I was married to him for 17 years and divorced him because he had a drinking problem and wouldn't address it. Over the years he has distanced himself from the girls with just a few calls during the whole year and it has been hardest on my 17 year old. I have been on an emotionally roller coaster the last month and really, I am soo wanting off it and now sounds really good. I find myself crying at a drop of a dime and can't seem to shake this somber mood I feel in. To add to the situation I have had to plan his memorial service. His family thought it might be best for the girls that I would do what was right for them and at our church, and to some degree I agree, so I just did it. It has been way too emotional for me and I would have never have guessed the flood of emotions that has taken over me during all of this. I never would have thought this would hurt so much after 10 years after the divorce, but it really does. Since this happened out of town and his remains was just received last week and since our youngest daughter is on a mission trip with her step dad this week, I have planned for the service to be next Friday, Nov. 21. A whole month of this has been DRAINING.....I will be relieved some when this is all in the past. Please hold my girls and me in prayer.

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes in the grass under trees on a summer day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.+ - John Lubock

I loved this quote and I have said before how much I love to collect quotes! This layout was done with a lot of stamps. I stamped my background paper with some sweet leaf green flourishes and then added some ding bat foam stamped imaged in blush both CTMH inks. Then I added the music notes in a Tim Holtz distressed ink and I also inked the edges of the paper. I stamped and colored my bird stamped image that I received from someone else and placed it on pop dots. I did my quote image in print shop, which I just adore. I made my flowers. I have adored those kind of flowers on some of my friends lo's and gave my hand a try at them. Added a cute row of buttons and a little extras and I think this turned out super cute and the pic was so perfect for that quote!

ENJOY THE SMALL THINGS IN LIFE

There are just some moments in time that we get to be blessed with if we only tune in to them and they usually become a true blessing if we take the time to enjoy them. Some can be so tiny that if you blink your eye and you don't take the time to take notice they are there and gone before you ever even realized that they were right under your own nose in the first place!! Well, that is what this mini album is all about.... a small blessing that we might have missed had Avery not found this little nymph of a cicada bug. His passion that morning was to get up and go out side and look for a live cicada. Little did I know that he meant a nymph so of course we were looking for two different things. Just when I was about to give up looking for a live cicada, he came running over to me with this nymph, which if you don't know what that is, is the cicada still in it's shell alivel. Well, of course I was looking for a winged one already out of it's shell. Yes, you have all seen those nasty kind of brown shells hanging on the trees, on the ground with the backs split open... Well he was soo excited and was saying... I found one thats alive... well sure enough there it was in it's glory of nymph-hood of getting ready to come out of it shell. The shell not even split one tiny bit. To be honest I didn't even think it was alive until it started moving it's legs. Well, of course we placed the nymph in Avery's handy dandy bug holder and we watched a small miracle happen right before our eyes. We watched with delight as this cicada shed it's shell, dried and expanded it's wings, change from a bright green to a dark green with magnificent color with specks of orange and black and a bluish tint to it. So I made this mini album to reflect this moment in time. It was a great day in a little boys heart and his mommy's too to share this joy of an adventure. Although when it came time to release the cicada at the end of the day, I can't say Avery was so thrilled with the idea at first and had a really hard time with the thought, but he did realize that that was the right thing to do for it to have the full glorification that God wanted this little bug to have. So, next time you are out walking around, look around, you might just find your own little miracle that day, maybe not in a nymph of a cicada, but maybe in something very small and tiny that if you blink your eye ..... walk right by without noticing it..... you will have missed it!

This is my first acrylic album and I just love it to pieces! I think a good hint for these popular little albums is 1) to use double sided paper 2) using a spray adhesive to attach your paper you don't have to worry about how you will attach it and if it will be seen... but this particular adhesive sticks really well, you can move it but I would try to place it as close to where you want it prior to sticking it down. I always lay out all my pages before sticking down, so that was not a big deal for me. I did not use lots of bulky elements only because I figured my son would be picking this up all the time to look through it and wanted to keep it as simple as could be with the elements and used mostly, paper, stickers and doodling. I used my adirondack acrylic paint dabber to add color to the edges of the book. Also, I placed black dots on the scalloped edges with a glaze pen. Although with this dark background you can't really see them. I would say if you haven't tried doing an acrylic album, do one. They are a lot of fun and can be also a bit challenging, but who isn't up for a good challenge?! LOL...

Warm Thoughts of You Card

This is a cute card I made with a coffee/tea theme to it. I love this house mouse image and I actually blew it up to fit on a 4x6 print out because I wanted it bigger. I then used my Mark-it markers to color it. I also stamped those cute little flowers on the mug to add a little design to the cup and outlined them in the copper stickles, which I might add, is awe soo lovely in real life!! The background paper is so warm and yummy and had a chocolately feel to it, so I thought ummmmm.... coffee and chocolate!

Beautiful Journey to the Past

Ok, I don't normally scrap lift, but when I received the new CTMH cattie the front cover lo I knew I wanted to scrap lift for this picture of my grandmother holding my mother at 2 months. Now, I must admit, it is not a total lift, but if you were to put the two next to each other you would see things that were similar. So I must give credit to CTMH for the partial lift. Funny, thing with lifting with me, is that even when I try to lift I just can't do it totally, always have to "just be me". I thought this turned out just lovely and the letters I made with my cricut. Stamped them and added a a touch of blue glitter pen to them too. I just love doing vintage type pages!!

Today, I am not feeling so well. I have all this upper respiratory and sinus stuff going on and have feeling pretty cruddy since Sunday. I have been down since then and so I thought I would sit at my computer and update this today as to being on the sofa, as my body is sore from all the lounging around. Avery had 2 asthma attacks just over 2 weeks ago and scared the heck out of me. Although he has asthma he has never had such attacks. His first one I was pretty scared and thought he was going to pass out on me and so I placed him on his breathing machine and then ran him to the doctor. The next day was his birthday and we spent it doing some fun things the 2 of us. Then Friday came and he slept a lot in the afternoon which was nothing new when getting up early these days for school. When he awoke from his nap he as sitting at the table playing with his sis and he started having another attack... this time no messing around he went right on his machine and a call to the doctor to stress my concern with the seriousness of these. So we ended up at the hospital to get a chest x-ray and the confirmation of an pneumonia. So the last week he has spent getting better and I have spent the last week coming down with this stuff. UGH. It seems never ending in a family size such as this. So, with that all said, that pretty much brings me up to date on my blog with chit-chat and my creativity. I think I will go jump in the shower now and try to clear this head of some junk. Thanks for stopping by... LOL.. ha like anyone comes here, but the few that trickle by and leave luvins I truly enjoy seeing your comments and appreciate the fly by.... so off to get some more rest after my shower.

Magic Moments - "Embellish It"

For this challenge we had to create a layout about any subject you like but use as many embellishments as you can! Use up some stash and see how creative you can be. For every DIFFERENT embellishment you use, give yourself a point. A button equals 1 point or 5 buttons still equals one point, for example. I chose to do this cute picture of Rachel and her friend when she was about 5. This is a pic with all my Christmas stuff animals that I place under the tree and then move them around the presents as we start placing them under the tree. One day Kristin and Rachel decided to pile them on the sofa and hide in them. This is the pic I snapped way back many YEARS before I was a scrapper!! LOL.... There is a hidden tag next to the blue sequins that pulls out to the right of the pic. It is the blue torn edge with the ribbon on it. I still need to journal it though. Here is a list of the embellishments I use: 1. gold cord on the letter "O" in moment's 2. Felt star 3. Gemstone circle 4. Die cut snowflakes 5. Chipboard - frame around the word friends 6. Silver heart charm (bottom right corner with fiber) 7. Bluish spiral clip (bottom right side with fiber) 8. little candy cane (bottom right side with fiber) 9. tag with year (bottom right side with fiber) 10. pearls on red felt star 11. brad - blue bling under "M" in moments 12. clear buttons - down left side 13. Red & green flower bling - down left side 14. stamped, color and cut-out image - little hedgehog 15. Red fiber - with spiral clip - right bottom side 16. Rub-on - word "friends" in chipboard frame 17. Green magic mesh - behind magic moments and bottom right side 18. Red photo anchor - under "S" in moments 19. Little Green prima flower - bottom next to chipboard frame 20. eyelet - in the center of the little green flower 21. Red embroidery thread 22. Blue ribbon with small snowflakes - down the center of lo 23. Ice blue sequins - left side and right side of pic 24. Photo corner - bottom left of pic 25. Red Ric-rac - bottom right side 26. Christmas postage stamp - left side next to large snowflake 27. Silver word staple with "giggle" on it - bottom right side above ric-rac 28. Dymo label with the names Kristin and Rachel on it - above pic.

More Birthday Cards.....

This is a card I made my friend for her birthday. I scrap lifted these words from a magazine called Stamper's Sampler. They pick a template and then they have readers use them and submit what they made. This month's template was a crow. Some one had a tag with their crow and this saying on it and I thought it was a hoot!! So, I downloaded the template and made it to fit a 5x7 card and this is my crow card. You can find the templates at stampington.com on the left side you will find templates! The tag was on page 74 in the magazine. I wish I could take credit for the words because they make me laugh every time I look at this card with the crow, but I can take credit for my crow though and isn't her makeover just lovely! LOL... I cut the first crow out of black cs, did her tail with a white charcoal pencil. Traced a head out of the green old worlds pp and inked the edges drew her eye and cut a beak out of the red cs that I did her wing in and inked the edges of the beak added the line and then added diamond glaze to give it a high gloss look like lip gloss might; added a rosie cheek and a hint of red to her eyelid. I than embossed her wing that I cut out with the cuttlebug embossing file and added white ink to make it pop, then added the the row of paper studio gemstones - red; made her crown on my own, embellished it and then I cut down the crow's legs some because I wanted them slimmer and then drew her feet and added a dot of red fingernail polish to each toe. Added the words I printed off of my computer. This was a lot of fun, I encourage you to download a crow and do something with it yourself. I am going to do something for halloween too.. lol when I find the time...

This is another card I made another girlfriend of mine. I stamped the bird with flowers (inkadinkadoo-birds galore) with a bright pink and added clear embossing powder, cut it out added the dark blue with a gelly roll sparkle pen, crimped my heart I hand cut, inked the edges, attached the heart and bird. Cut the bottom of my card off, added the scalloped edge, added my ribbon (thanks LA, you're the best) and added the flower with the little tag with the word happy. the background pp is actually wrapping paper that I just adore and I wish I had tons of it in wrapping paper and scrappy paper!

Five things I Adore

Here is a layout on five things I adore. Of course, there are plenty more than these five things, but narrowing them down was not that easy so I just went with these. Under each pic is a little paragraph as to why I adore each of these items. This layout is for my BOM.