And seriously, with a major holiday like this, how could I not share and post and wish you a Happy #WCMD2014 ?! 🙂
So here’s a cute little fuzzy owl (made with brown flower soft glued to Mr. Owl from with Jillibean’s You’re Tweet Stamp Set. I added some googly eyes, glossy accent hearts, and used Stampinup DSP, cardstock, ink, and ribbon in Chocolate Chip). And since it kinda matches the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches FMS156 (maybe a stretch – but what the heck!), I thought I’d enter it there.
When I saw this week’s Friday Mashup, I had to play along.
Especially when I saw Cindy’s Card – she is the queen of clean and simple and beautiful card-making. (Be sure to check out her site to see more of her creative, beautiful designs: CindyLeeBeeDesigns)
I couldn’t resist trying the technique (blowing ink through a straw), and in the end, realized my card is not only inspired by Cindy, but ended up looking almost like it.
This technique reminds me of childhood spin-art and the recent melted crayon art trend. Sometime it’s fun to just see what will happen.
I embossed the “hello” from the SU My Friend Stamp Set in black on vellum, which I “randomly” stitched onto the card.
Here is the FM179 challenge: Create a project using the Ink Blowing Technique and the colors Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry and Basic Black.
Happy Friday! What a BEAUTIFUL Fall week it has been here in Western PA!
Today, I’m sharing a card I’ve made for The Paper Players Challenge (#PP214), but I can’t take credit for the design. I copied this one from one of my Stampin’ IDOLS, Michelle Zindorf. You can check out her blog here and her much better version of the card here. I had fun making it nonetheless. Thanks, Michelle, for the inspiration. And thanks, Jaydee, for the challenge.
This week’s challenge was to make a Masculine CAS Design. I think I got CAS (Clean and Simple) confused with CASE (Copy and Share Everything)!
Cards for men are always a bit more difficult. They don’t usually like all the froo-froo fussy-fuss many of us girls like. 🙂 Michelle did some brayering when she made her card. I just sponged my colors on. It was actually quite a quick and easy card to make using the SU Wetlands stamp set. I added the taller grass, extended the ground, made the transition into the “ocean” a bit softer, and gave it an olive green background to be a bit different.
And while I’m sharing cards, here are two I made at “card class” this week with one of my other Stamping Idols and mentor Stacey Ailes.
I had so much fun making this boot and bandana card. Especially the bandana – which was started from scratch on a red piece of card stock, randomly stamped in black, then the most fun part of doodling in white.
It was fun to make this Fall-colored card look like it is “glowing.”
Check out Stacey’s blog here. She is one very talented, creative lady – and an even sweeter friend! Her card is even more exquisite with an embossed gold maple leaf and framed in tiny pearls.
You discover a letter on a path that affects you deeply. Today, write about this encounter. And your twist? Be as succinct as possible.
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Well – of course its a love letter 🙂 …………
Bear with me, friends, on a fiction challenge.
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It was just like any other Friday morning in September.
Mikey and I were on our morning walk.
The sun was bright, the breeze light, the air crisp, and the crickets chirped their Autumn lullaby.
Mikey saw it first – or most likely smelled it first, and he tugged on the leash I was leisurely holding.
“What now,” I thought.
Then I saw it.
I couldn’t resist picking it up.
I unfolded the tattered composition paper that was tucked into the torn and faded yellowing envelope.
“My Dearest Love,” it began.
“I miss you more than the number of stars in the sky. I miss you deeper than the depths of the sea. The only thing that makes this time away from you bearable, is knowing that you are there, waiting for me, praying for me, longing for me – as I long for you. I am the most fortunate man in the entire universe, because I know in my heart that you are…..”
The page was torn. The rest of the story is lost – – – lost in time, lost in space.
Maybe it belongs to one of our neighbors.
Or maybe it has traveled for hundreds or thousands of miles – floating through the winds of time.
Mikey and I will never know.
He trudges ahead, sniffing and searching for the next treasure.
I smile and wonder…. imagining…. dreaming…. hoping…. longing…. for a happy ending.
(The card pictured here was designed for The Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge PPA213. The challenge was to use: Blackberry Bliss, Brown Sugar, Cajun Craze, and Always Artichoke.)
The thing I love most about it is the tiny gold embossed hearts amidst the plethora of random dots. It’s like the hidden treasure – in the mass of chaos.
It’s 11:11pm, and I am in a Holiday Inn about 4 1/2 hours from home in Eastern PA where I will be speaking at a conference tomorrow on “Using Social Media in Healthcare to Meet, Engage, and Retain Patients” for the Central PA Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). I’m looking forward to it and hope it will be an engaging talk.
Before I turn in, I wanted to do my “homework.” Today’s #Writing101 Assignment: Write about the three most important songs in your life — what do they mean to you?
Music is such a wonderful expression of feelings and emotions, and I was able to quickly come up with three that came to mind immediately that represent important moments and people in my life. (And I even have to add a bonus one!)
So here goes:
#1: “You’re Still the One” by Shania Twain
When Marty turned 40 about 15 years ago (holy shmoly – where did that time go?!), I threw a surprise party for him. At that party, I had this song played for us to dance to. At that point, we had been married 17 years. I was 19 and he was 23 when we married that April afternoon 32 years ago. At the time, I thought the lyrics were so perfect and appropriate, and they are even more so now. It has become “our song.”
Looks like we made it. Look how far we’ve come, my baby. We mighta took the long way. We knew we’d get there someday.
They said, “I bet they’ll never make it.” But just look at us holding on. We’re still together, still going strong.
You’re still the one I run to – the one that I belong to. You’re still the one I want for life.
You’re still the one that I love – the only one I dream of. You’re still the one I kiss good night.
Ain’t nothing better. We beat the odds together. I’m glad we didn’t listen. Look at what we would be missing.
I have always loved this classic – the words, the instruments – Louie’s raspy passion when he sings it. It always makes me feel so grateful – makes me realize the simple pleasures – makes me think to myself what a wonderful world…
So when Jake and Colleen were planning their wedding last summer, Jake asked me what song I would like to dance with him to for the Mother-Son Dance. I immediately chose this one, and he immediately agreed to thinking it was a great choice. (And those that know Jake know that is a monumental occasion)
During the weeks prior to the wedding, I listened to it over and over.
And over and over.
And over and over.
Until I could get through it without crying.
And the day of the wedding, when Jake and I danced to this beautiful song, all I could do was smile and be happy and hug and hold him tight.
But the even more awesome thing was when a year later at Jackie’s wedding (the oldest daughter of my BFF Jill), the DJ played this song, and Jake sought me out from another room and escorted me onto the dance floor to dance to “our song.” This time I had tears in my eyes…
#3: “What a Difference You’ve Made in My Life” by Ronnie Milsap
This is the song I played over and over when I was reunited with my Dad four years ago. For at least a year, neither he nor I could listen to it without crying tears of love and gratitude.
For our first Christmas together after 30+ years, I made a CD of songs for him, and this was the first one I put on it.
It will always be “our song.”
And for the bonus one I mentioned – way back in the beginning – I had to share this photo that was in Marty’s work newsletter, The Cranberry Township Staff Lines. KUDOS to the witty writer who captioned this photo that sure made me one proud mudder!
I know – for all of you literalists out there – it’s not officially Fall until September 22 (at 10:29pm) – (remember – we already talked about this here?!) – still 8 more days of “Summer.”
But will you indulge me to share one more Fall card – BEFORE it’s officially Fall??
I had so much fun on Saturday just “goofing around” at home. We had no plans this weekend, and I told Marty I just wanted to “craft,” especially since the weather was so Fall-like. 🙂
The challenge was to use these three colors: Crushed Curry, Always Artichoke, and Cajun Craze (Fall colors – right?!)
I used the SU White Christmas stamp for the trees and sponged a combination of only the three challenge colors to create other hues of oranges through blending. I used the fun Flower-Soft again for the Fall leaves and a Wplus9 framelit for the “hello” greeting.
I’m really happy with how the card turned out, and its vibrant colors are helping me in my quest to embrace Fall!
Tomorrow I begin a WordPress #Writing101 Challenge. It will be a 30-day challenge that provides a daily topic and a twist to the topic to challenge a blogger’s creative thinking and writing. I’m looking forward to sharing with all of you. Not sure where this will take us, but glad to have you along for the journey!
I know – Fall doesn’t officially begin until September 22, 2014 at 10:29 pm… (impressed with my precisional detail? – my own made-up word, “precisional” 🙂 )
There are still 12 more days until the Autumnal Equinox, and I can assure you I am going to embrace every last moment of “Summer.”
But – – – in my quest to alsoembrace Fall, I’m going with it here folks!
And… I know exactly who I am going to send this card to!
She is someone I work with, who L – O – V – E s Fall.
She always puts her Fall wreath on her front door for the first day of school.
Not sure if Jamie even reads my blog, but this card is going in the mail to my Fall-lovin’ friend, and I hope she enjoys it.
For my card, I used SU’s Wondrous Wreath and For All Things stamp sets and had a little fun embellishing with Crystal Effects on the berries and some fluffy, fuzzy Autumn Flower-Soft on the bow and acorns.
Such simple pleasures and cherished smiles revolve around those less complicated, simpler times….
But life moves on….
Times change…
Do kids today still play tic-tac-toe? On paper?
I love technology, but I also love paper – – – For example – with books and reading … I sometimes read a book on my iPad, sometimes I listen to a book through Audible on my iPhone, and other times I love holding and turning the pages of a real book! And sometimes I do all three with the same book – especially when I need to get through one for a book club deadline! 🙂
Anyway – we can dwell on the past reminisce or go with the flow and change with the times.
So it was fun to see The Paper Players offer a Tic-Tac Toe Challenge this week. My first! You had to choose any three items combined across, down or diagonal to make your card or project.
And my goal was to see how many ways I could get three in a row in one card!
Here is the tic-tac-toe challenge, and I got Three in a Row THREE ways with this card!
Can I get a WOOHOO?
And here is my card challenge submission:
I got:
Birthday – Yellow – Patterned Paper: First Row Down
Birthday – Green – Button: First Row Across
Patterned Paper – Ribbon – Purple: Third Row Across
Fun stuff – eh?!?! 🙂
Ok – I know I know – I’m easily amused…
But the best part is that I get to send this birthday card to a very special someone who has a birthday coming up next week!
And to that special lady – I wish for her to know that you can never have too much happy. I also want her to know what happiness she has brought to my life!
Love ya Joyce! May you smile, giggle, laugh, and enjoy your day and year! xo
I cannot believe it is Back to School time already! Where did the summer go?
And even though my boys are grown, I still get that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach this time of year…
When my boys were young, I was always a little sad to see summer end and have them go back to school. Summer was so much fun! I recall rushing to get our “chores” done in the morning, getting some semblance of a dinner started, even setting the table, and then spending lazy afternoons EVERY SINGLE sunny day at my friend, Barb’s pool. Oh those were the days! I was so fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom until Jake started 9th grade and Nick 7th grade. There was no job I would have rather done when they were young. (And I think that is why I can love my job so much now – because I have no regrets of time not spent with my guys when they were young – and since they don’t need me anymore – <SIGH!> – at least in the way they did when they were young – I needed more “purpose” to my days.)
I wonder if I’ll ever not get that feeling at this time of year? When I hear my Dad tell me about the kids on the bus (and today is the first day of Kindergarten for the area where he is a bus driver – – – in his retirement after being bored staying home – – – hmmm – see any correlation there?! 🙂 ), my heart remembers those days of walking the boys to the top of the lane to meet the bus (and then take a walk with Tracy – who is still my walking buddy! 🙂 ) and passing the hours until they would come bounding home in the afternoon!
I sure did love those days and I sure do still love those guys – BUNCHES and BUNCHES! And they both have terrific ladies they share their lives with now that I have grown to love also. Marty and I are truly blessed.
Here is one of my favorite “First Day of School” photos taken at the bus stop, which is close to 20 years old!:
Gosh! How did I blink, and that turn into this?!?!?
Well – enough of that reminiscing! Thanks for indulging me if you’ve read this far! 🙂
I hope you all are enjoying (or at least getting through) this back to school time of year!
The card I am sharing today is one I created for a new challenge to me – Freshly Made Sketches #151. Here is the sketch we were presented with to create a card design from:
Since I have lots of guys in my life, I need to come up with some more “masculine” cards. For this design, I used SU By the Tide stamp set for the fish and seaweed, did a little watercoloring and sea salt technique to create my “ocean” background square, used some fun Neat ‘n Tangled “Punchinella” for an embellishment (cool stuff to repurpose the sheet that sequins are punched!!), a little fish scale look with my #WinkofStella brush pen (do you think I just love this brush pen because it is named after MY Grandma!? 🙂 ), and a couple of pearls for bubbles.
Here is the sketch we were challenged to design from.
For my card, I started with some Navy and White SU DSP, embossed a “friendly” sentiment on vellum with gold embossing powder, colored a flower from SU Bloom with Hope with alcohol markers, then fussy cut and embellished with #WinkofStella and glued and stitched it all together for this fun friend card.
If you have a few moments, enjoy one of my all-time favorite versions of one of my all-time favorite songs 🙂
I couldn’t stay away……
the creative life in between 