Ribbon Award

Trying to add a new variety to my stash of cards and I found out about Mojo Monday. I was going to try to add the card sketch that inspired me, but I was having errors adding to blogger, so I guess you'll just have to view the finished product. I made about 4 cards in this layout (it looks like a Ribbon award) and I really like the different layers. I think I could make a more masculine card with darker patterned paper colors and maybe just a button or circle or leaf in the corner. I'll showcase more later when blogger lets me.

Yesterday was a quiet yet windy day. Fa la la... to fill the silence I did a little Christmas carol singing as I did my daily stuff. The sun shone for approximately 5 minutes as I put away all the fall decor and slowly brought up some interior holiday decorations. Made special doggie gifts out of fuzzy fleece yesterday too.... all in all a successful day.

More to come, stay tuned!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Spot that

Either there is some exciting card making going on out there on the WWW that I get to do some fun CASe Study on.... or I'm finding all the right spots to hit to get my mojo going, or yes BOTH! Well, it really does help when you have a few orders... I want to cre8te some new and fun paper crafts to send to my customers. Thanks to those who are supporting my small business!! Love the simplicity of the card above with just a few punched flowers, swirls and colors that all match. There are so many ways to go with just this one layout and then incorporating different colors.

Can you spot Sissy? Her high school football team was on local TV as they won their 6A football state championship this past weekend. The college boy paused the action as the crowd was being panned and found her and took a picture. They all look so happy! (don't enlarge, it's a picture of a picture of a picture, gets blurry)

I was feeling a bit down thinking I needed to go shopping over the past weekend with Black Friday and all the other craziness. It sure was overwhelming all the newspaper ads and TV ads and people all over the internet remarking about their great purchases (or that they were done??).... making me feel guilty! I helped out the economy yesterday by doing a little cyber Monday on-line shopping and I went to M's and found a few things to add to my cre8tive stash. I feel much better.... but I'm thinking I need to visit a few more stores this week, just in case I missed something:)

Wilson's Surprise

There is a new dog to do and his name is Wilson... he is a labradoodle doodle. One parent was a poodle and the the other parent was a Labradoodle.... thus the doodle doodle part. He's about 8 months old.... his sweet doggie sister was Charlie who passed away this summer. New dog, new card with new adventures!!

Inside I wanted to make the card as fun as the outside and I remembered that pop ups are always fun. The card is for a 1 year old, what does he care... it's for all the parents and aunties to ooh and ahhh over. Need the paw prints to finish off the cuteness.

Yay, vacation is over for everyone else... now vacation for me. I get to go back to normal... cooking and cleaning and cardmaking and quiet. It's nice to have everyone home and back in the nest... but this old bird needs the adventures a new week can bring.

Took the college guy back to the bus stop last night and he went safely on his way. Sissy's highschool football team won the 6A state championship and the hubster has had a pretty quiet week off and now can get back to business!!

Now time for cre8tive fun!

Colorful Friday

Today I'm showing you one of the finished projects from my Mouse, Paper, Scissors 2 - Give class. It's a shadow box frame. It was a creamy pine wood color at first.... and with a little glimmer mist, and some ink and a few other tricks from the class we come out with beautiful box. Inside we created the pages from Photo Shop and then I took some photos from our family fall photo shoot and learned out to add them to the templates. On top, I created some puffy flowers, tied a ribbon and added a few other surprises to make this cute keepsake!

Here is a close up with all the different textures.

Beautiful sunny day for Colorful Friday.. my take on Black Friday. I don't think I've ever been... shopping that is at 4am.... or this year 12 am. I might have gone out later in the day when the crowds died down.. but never made a date to go find those doorbuster deals. I've not needed or wanted something that bad to

a. get up that early and

b. deal with crazy people at the store
Now the hubby has done it a few years to get a good deal on a tv or some electronic gizmo. I knew neighbors year ago that they loved this day. They planned it all out with stops for early morning coffee and a nice lunch later in the morning. Fun for them .... me, not so much.

Oh, colorful Friday reminds me of a rainbow, and a rainbow reminds me of Kermit the Frog and Rainbow Connection, and that reminds me there is a new Muppet Movie out. Keeping it all in perspective!

Let it S...

NO! I can't say the word... yet. Cute sentiment on a card with adorkable snowmen but I can not talk about the white fluffy stuff. Not gonna do it. Just keep coming back to view all the cute guys, in all shapes and sizes. Hats and twigs, hearts ♥ and stars. Oh the blog isn't going to become snowmen 24/7... they just might be poppin in a lot, since it 'tis the season.

Had a great day to hang holiday lights outside. Hubby is taking a much need week of vacation and helping me with the Honey Due list. It was even sunny and about 50 degrees hanging garland, wreaths and twinkling lights from the gutters. Perfect day for it!

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life... it goes on. ~ pinterest

Happy Hoolidays!

Owls are HOT! or I should say they are a HOOT! Everywhere I look from Pinterest to cardblogs to home decorating, cute and whimsical owls are the 'in' bird right now. You can make them fat or skinny, in a tree or huddled in a bunch, and the best part is their googly eyes that can be going every which way!

Don't forget to send out FuN MaiL!!.... it can be related to all the holidays coming up or just to let someone know you are thinking of them. Order from me, where else can you find a unique card for $2.50.... buy a few more, you'll be supporting a small business! ♥

We picked up the college kid from the bus drop of in Woodfield Mall on Friday night. He rode the 3-1/2 one way trip from Iowa City to Schuamburg. It's nice to have him home for 8 days. Our favorite grocery store that has been closed since storms July 25 finally re-opened this week We are excited to buy our favorite food staples, we missed that place. The kids high school football team won their semi-finals game and they were there and watched, this Saturday the school goes to STATE, first time ever. We went to Indiana to have lunch with the hubsters family at an Outback Steakhouse (tasty). It was very nice to see everybody and we could get together before the holiday rush! The Packers WIN!
Yup! a mighty fine weekend!!

Big Ole Heart

Hello Everyone.... waves the cute snowman.

He is one happy dude!

Don't you think? I got an order for some snowmen cards and I want to create the very best and most cutest snowman cards in the world.... that's what I like to do.

There are so many ways to create them, one circle, two or three, top hat or stocking cap, scarf/no scarf, stick arms with or without mittens, carrot nose, coal for eyes or google eyes, snowflakes falling, more than one snowman, holding bells, with a bird on his hat, with a gift by his side, a great big red heart on his chest... as you can read the possibilities are endless. One thing is for sure.... more snowmen to come!

Sunny and blue skies today 38 and the wind is whipping around. Our major tree on the back patio that got hit by storms this past summer just lost the last of it's leaves. So I was raking them up yesterday. Darn, I should have waited one more day and they would have blown away.

Thank you to those who stop in and check out my blog. I hope that on most days your visit to my blog brings a smile to your face.

Christmas Art

I thought outside the box, slightly. The subway art layout that I learned on my on-line class called Mouse, Paper, Scissors-Give with Jessica Sprague and Heidi Swapp... allows you to create anything... once you have a few ideas and the time to play around.

My hands are giddy with excitement as I type this, but my head is swimming with confusion. Once I learn how to do something, I get it. The thing is... I don't know enough about PSE (Photo Shop Elements 8... that's the version I have) so, if I were to make a mistake, I don't know how to un-due it. Most people would just play around.... I don't want to make the time to play around to learn something... give me the facts and then let me go.

I tried to save my 8-1/2 x 11 poster with the holiday flair about 6 times and then tried to find it to post on my blog. I really don't need it 6 times... but I don't want to take up space on my computers memory... so I should get rid of at least 5... don't you think??

This is ONE of my major issues about learning something new. At times I'm ready to toss my mouse out the window because I can't get it! And now I'm unsure of myself once I learn this how many new ways I can incorporate the awesomeness, but I can't remember it all. Use it or loose it!! Such a dilemma.

Our house is in a small amount of turmoil. The college boy comes home tomorrow. The teenage girl has an attitude, the mom feels like a maid and the husband has already worked and dealt with board of directors 12+ hours extra this week. At least the sun is Sh!Ning and it's a balmy 25 degrees! Oh Joy.... to the world

Snowmen Melt My Heart

It's that time of year .... all kinds of snowmen!!!

And the holiday season has officially begun. Thanksgiving next week and then Black Friday and every day after that is chaos, mayhem and craziness.

Just running my normal errands the stores are busier.

More fun cards, crafts and happy opportunities on their way!

Subway Art

Was playing around and able to up load my subway art from the first Mouse Paper Scissors ~ Give class, working on Photo Shop (I have PSE8) plus lots of other things. This is an on-line class that you take when it's convenient. You have to keep up though, or you'd get blown away by the awesome over achiever students who post their work. Great forum for asking questions when you can't get something to work and great step by step tutorials.

This artwork was conceived being 24" x 36" and to take it to a copyshop to be made into a poster.... but I'm to cheap... and made it for a 8-1/2" x 11" frame I had laying around. It still looks awesome!!!!

Embrace Your Inner Elf

Oh I just love the 'punny' sentiments. Girly Elf types are in this season, and I'm loving her!

To, too TOO, cute!

As always, honing in on my shading techniques. Got some new Sharpie Markers as my old BIC markers purchased in a school shopping binge 4 years ago are slowly starting to run out. With the hundreds of cards I doodle I am happy to report that the BIC markers I believe 24 for $8 were a great buy! Nothing like those wonderful Copic markers with a 40% off coupon still at $5.99 each....

Taking a new Mouse Paper Scissor class on-line with Heidi Swapp and Jessica Sprague. Working on my Photo Shop skills..... so totally different than my PrintMaster program... but this old dog has to learn some new tricks! I'll post some new work once I figure out the path from PSE8 (that's Photo Shop Elements)

Really, in my nicest tone of voice: Find a beautiful place and get lost! ~pinterest

In the Park

Simple image. Doing a Case Study on cards, of course. Doodles and a graduated color block, plus stickles adding a little glitter pop.

Beautiful fall weekend. Don't have anything exciting to report. Just living a grateful and thankful life. I'm able to have dinners with my family, I'm able to walk my cute doggies, I'm able to make my house into our home.

Bubba comes home from college this Friday. ♥ Life will change for the week!

Eleven Eleven Eleven

Over the past few weeks I have done something the sign says. It enables me! And I love it. I think Sissy loves it too. So many ideas, so little time.

Although this furbaby isn't something made on Pinterest, he could be one of the cute doggies added just for the 'awwwww' factor. So we will take more pictures of his fuzziliciousness!

Made the pumpkin cake, once. Fun to try, but don't need to do it again. I'm looking forward to making one with the coke. I really like all the fun recipes. There are some great photographers.
Here's the latest. 100 ornament wreath. Striking and musical(jingle bells) but it needs more hot glue to hold it together. Fun concept.

In the business of being awesome. Make a wish on 11.11.11.

SMASH it!

There is another new thing out in the paper crafting world.... SMASH books from K&Company.

It's a memory keeping book. What? Another one.... yes!

Smash v. : the act of sticking your cool stuff into this awesome book.

above: I made the title on the computer and glued it on.

Side view: pen holder and page tabs.

When it was Back-to-school shopping time, Target had those Composition Notebooks with the black covers for $0.40 each. I bought 6 of them, knowing I wanted to re-cover them and make them into something other than a plain notebook.

While perusing the aisles at Archivers I came across these cute books that you can smash your ideas into them. How is that any different than all my other notebooks, scrapbooks, idea books etc... no real big difference.... it's just the newest craze starting at $14.00 plus change.

With a little creativity, paper folding and stamping I took the plain ho-hum notebook and started the process for my gift receiver to start the ideas rolling!!!

The view above is a cello bag filled with goodies to attach to the pages once the recipient is in full possession. There are tiny coin envelopes to put ticket stubs or small keepsakes. There are post it notes to emphasize a point on a page. There are corner pages to tuck in photos or corny paper cut outs. I stamped awesome sayings throughout the book and added funky paper clips with ribbon randomly on different pages.

Just SMASH it!

To succeed in life, you need 3 things

A wish bone

A back bone

and a funny bone ~ Reba McEntire

Dollar Wreath

As you know... one of my hundreds of fav things, or things I love is. . . Pinterest.

There has been posts of these simply adorable wreaths made out of Christmas Tree ornaments. The best part is the original poster said they got the bulbs... at least 100 at the $1 store. So, I of course had to attempt this. Here are my supplies.... not quite 100 ornaments ($8 worth.... small package had 15 each, large package had 7) , glue gun and a simple wire hanger.

I created my shape and started adding the bulbs. Turned on my low temp glue gun and started gluing. I even added a 9 package of jingle bells.

Here is the finished project.

It could use a few more ornaments. Can you believe that?? But for a first run.... I think it turned out great. The test of time... needs more glue in... spots. I heard the bells jingle a bit when the house was quiet. The bulbs were finding gravity! I love a good challenge!

Celebrating Anniversaries

Needed to stock up on some Anniversary cards and when I found a new to me blog to view this cardmakers yummy goodness... I decided to do a CASe Study on the Ewen Style. Small print patterned paper is something I'm needing to look for MORE of. And if the paper is from a pattern stack.... there is no worries of trying to match the paper.... it's already done for me! Here I mixed paper from different paper lines, but the colors are similar... so I think it works!

Here's a close up of that lollipop flower.... or a layered circle flower.... the edges are inked and distressed... and I'm thinking it's so darn cute. You can see zig zag stitches and a cute punch boarder.... lots of fun going on in a 2" square.... extreme close up!

I feel silly doing it, but when I walk the dogs I purposefully put a smile on my face. Not that I'm grumpy when I walk (well when I think about the cold, wet, windy, winter... I might be frowning) but I'm trying to smile more.... I look so serious all the time. Your day will go the way the corners of your mouth turn.

Shameless Plug

Please help a small business grow!!

Emboss it!

I went to my local SBS.... scrap book store and got %20 off on two new embossing folders. I was there making 3 for $3, but actually this week it was 4 for $4. Making cards for $1 each... just such a fun thing for a card maker.

Here's one of the embossers in action. If you buy products that they demonstrate you get the discount. Everybody loves a deal!! I love that the folder leaves a clean space for you to stamp a sentiment or create embellished areas. The embossed part is in the shape of heart, you can't see it here...maybe next time I will leave the entire image and then ink it to to give this type of card a different effect. I used an actual 3" doily from the candy/cake making area, cut that up and extended the swirly stuff used for this card.

I'm loving these layered circles for flowers. The flatter embellishments seem to mail better. I still like making multi-dimensional flowers, but think it's so cool to manipulate flat paper and make all these pretty 'lil things.

Not only am I thief (I scrap LIFT ideas) but I'm also a liar. I'll tell you my secret. For over 5 years entering blog posts, you got what you got when I posted. If I was typing at 7:22 am or 1:05 pm that's when I was actually typing. But now, crazy as it might sound to any smart bloggers out there, I figured out how to use the Post Options key and I've actually (only this past week) been typing the post a day ahead and letting it post at a pre-scheduled time. I'm actually sleeping when most of the posts actually go 'live' on my blog. There, I feel so much better. Some days I may be (a) live.... but now you'll never know!

Happy Feet

With all the different issues I've been having with my feet lately, I thought I could post some happy feet good news. Maybe it's the perscriptive drugs, well it is.... but it's amazing to take the first morning steps and not have pins and needles shooting up my heels. I've come to the conclusion that I need to "Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor the Devil say 'oh crap she's up' ! "

And what's been funny is there were a ton of posts on Pinterest about feet and legs recently. All of these are so true...can you relate?
Blanket on?
Too hot
Blanket off?
Too cold
One leg out?
Perfect!

See and that leads me to the next quote because I'm not sure how safe it is to have my leg off the bed... "I never stick my leg off the edge of the bed no matter how hot it is because it would get eaten off!" But for me, the leg that is out often has a little dog tongue licking it to wake me up in the morning! Now that is weird.

Not sure how to end this post. Wasn't really going anywhere with it, so I guess... I have so much to do that I'm going to bed!!!

It's the weekend!!

A Hole Lot of Punching

A little wonky, but it shows that these cards are truly hand created and crafted. Have I said I love punch art lately? What don't I love about this hobby of mine! I wish I knew a little bit more how to create the fun with my computer and digitize more things, but if I knew it all, there wouldn't be all these new things to learn and then show off on my blog!! Thanks for humoring me!!

I picked up leaves with the lawnmower earlier this week. And yesterday I chopped down and cleared all my perennials that were turning yellow and droopy. I have a few things still to put away from my secret garden, but it looks like it's time to shut the yard down. We heard that we might possibly have even a worse winter than last year! Hopefully the added insurance my dear hubby bought a few weeks ago will keep the snow away. A tease, you'll have to stay tuned to hear more about that.

I'm feeling a bit better now that I'm on steroids. I had some pretty swollen ankles and sore feet ... so I finally went to a doctor. I have plantar faciitous and tendonitious... from my stressful exercise regime? From all the extensive housework I do? Combination of all of that and that I'm another year older and it's getting easier to have aches and pains?