I Heart You

Thursday morning. Sleet. Snow later. Can't go anywhere. Must craft! What a dream day! I'm taking Geri's advice and skipping the deep cleaning this week, and will get to it next week. It's not like I don't have time...And besides, I'd rather play in my craft room. Come on now, so would you. There's just something about paper and tape runners and all the accoutrement that goes into the craft. When that idea hits, when you see the card in your head and step by step it just appears between your hands, when all other thoughts disappear, except this small creation...well, you know what I'm talking about! It's a good day to stay in and play! I have a card that I made for three challenges. Could be a first for me. Can't seem to remember if I've managed three before or not....Anyway... There's a new kid in town. CAS on Sunday, and I thought I might give it a try. You should too. Looks like a fun place to play. Next, I'm playing over at Unscripted Sketches. The sketch this week is awesome, and I might just use it over and over again. And finally, because I actually made this card in 8.12 minutes, I'm going to go and play over at the 10 Minute Craft Dash. Both the 10MCD and CASOS have "hearts"--use hearts in your design, and my hearts fit perfectly with US196 as well. Click on the links in this post and head on over to each blog. The cards found there will make you do the happy dance, I promise!

So. In just over eight minutes, I was able to use the sketch from US to create this:

Oh so darn easy! If you plan to play at the 10MCD, you are allowed to have your card base and all your supplies ready. Which I did. I used my cricut and cut the three rectangles out of the red cardstock. Trimmed the red section to 51/4 x 4". I next trimmed a scrap of black to fit behind, and to use for the sentiment strip. Stamped the sentiment, and attached both black sections. Placed my heart stickers and the black bling. Et voila! Done! Just like downtown! SU white cardstock. The red and black cardstock are probably from Bazzill, but I can't be sure. The stickers are from Recollections, the bling is from Want2scrap (shout out here to Sharon from My Paper Playground for having the most perfect little black blings!), Avacado Arts sentiment from Sweet Treats Sweetie set, and Stampabilities white ink. So there you have it. Now, go forth and do a happy dance, then create...

Finally, I'm a Muse ing...

Well, I think I'm amusing pretty much all the time, but in this case, I'm getting to play along at the rather new challenge club called Muse.  I have admired Jackie Rockwell's work since I 'found' her, and have paid attention to her philosophy about cardmaking and blogging, and was thrilled when she created Muse. For the first two challenges, I could only look, drool, and dream--no time to play along. Laurie Willison, whom you all know to be another one of the best card makers in blogland, is the guest designer over there this week, and her card is amazing. I worked on a card yesterday and today it lays in the recycle bin. Just couldn't get my mojo going on the colors (blues & whites) that I had chosen. I knew I had some yellowy, greeny, orangey, flowery patterned paper in my stash, so this morning I pulled it out and just like that, a card appeared on my craft table.You'll see it below Laurie's. Muse has some rules, but don't worry if you haven't checked out this challenge; the rules are easy peasy.

1. Use the Muse card as your inspiration, explain your whys and hows, then do the linky thingy
2. Support your fellow Muse members. Leave comments on at least 3 cards (this one is waaay easy)
3. Then at the end of the challenge, vote for 3 of your favs.

Could not be more simple. Do go over and check this challenge club out. Leave a little love to for Jackie and Laurie, and for those cards that have tickled your fancy.
  

As I said before, I was inspired by the colors that Laurie used, but make sure you enlarge the photo so you can really see her flowers. Amazing. So onto mine.

Now, in real life, the oranges and yellows are muted and not quite as screamingly bright as they appear in the photo. Dang. I am just going to have to win the lottery, hire a photographer to be at my beck and call for whenever I need photos of my cards. Who's with me on this???!!! So here's what I used. SU white cardstock, scraps of orange, yellow and green from the scrapbox, hence no brand here, Memento Bamboo Leaves ink, Queen & Co. Slime Green pearls, Scenic Route patterned paper, and a random brad and random flowers. That's it. Happy Dances everyone.

Playing with Polka Dots

I don't know why I love polka dots so much, but I do. And it just so happens that this week's Trend Watch at Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge is, well, polka dots!


      

Naturally I wanted to play. And if I have time (lol), I might even play again this week!

BTW, the nice ladies over at CASology picked this card as one of the Honorable Mentions for last week! Super thrilled to be among these incredible card making. Thanks!! Be sure you stop on by and check out all the HMs from last week, as well as the winning entry. And check out Darnell's princely card for this weeks challenge!

Now. Go forth and click on this link (ok, wait till you see my card below first please) and check out the Moxie Fabber of the Week!!!!!!! Yep, big congrats to Geri. How very cool Geri!!!!

All stamps are from Paper Smooches: Eco Friendly and Spring Groves, SU inks, and Echo Park and the Paper Studio polka dot papers. I pop dotted the sun and one of the clouds. Inside it says "Happy Birthday" from the Sentiment Sampler set. This little tornado is one of my favorite fun images! Maybe because when I get to deep cleaning the house, DH calls me his "white tornado", and he gets the heck out of the way!! lol  Do your happy dances, and as Darnell says, LITS, so dance like no one's watching!

Groundhog's Day

It has been a very looooong month. Fun, but exhausting. As you know, I've been buried in the Archives of our local history museum helping with collections care for the entire month. My job as Assistant Archivist was only for two days per week, and this past month saw me boosted up to pretty much full time. The museum closes the Archives to the public, and we put collection upon collection in proper storage containers, dealt with probably over 10,000 photos and other documents, shifted and shifted and shifted collections boxes, made some repairs to photographs, and anything else we could find time for. Whew. I work with my dear friend and college classmate Mary so it's no hardship to work there! We'd put Pride and Prejudice in the DVD player and listen to most of it, but stop and watch the "good" parts, and work full tilt boogie. Then yesterday, at the end of my shift, I retired. That's my news. I'm retired. Officially retired. Hasn't sunk in yet, and I'm still tired from the work week. It will probably take me a couple of weeks before it really hits home, but I plan to enjoy it.  I don't have a card to share today, but wanted to share something special (besides the retirement news). My little granddaughter Lily made me. She said "Grandma, this is you. I made it all by myself." And today I'm as happy and feeling as sweet as this looks:

You'll notice that I have 5 fingers on each hand, eyelashes, lipstick, blush, and some awesome high heels on. Lily is four years old, "...almost five, grandma!" I love this. Pretty good with the scissors too! She's getting her own "tape thingy" plus refills as part of her birthday present. Happy dances to everyone.

CASology 29

So sorry to be away for so long. As I mentioned to Darnell, there's a tad-bit of challenge withdrawal going on and when I saw CASology's newest, I knew I had a card in my stash with which to play! The cue word this week is "game", and in my opinion this card fits the bill. Apologies to all the bowlers out there, (Sue and Dad) it is a sport, but it's also a game. I will have a teeny announcement coming up this weekend so do come back for another visit....

Those of you who know my style, know that I am a fan of white space. Well there's lots of that here:

The lighting wasn't quite what I wanted, but I had to go with it. Bazzill cardstock, SU inks, and TAWS stamps. I left the ball uncolored. Tried it with patterned paper and coloring, but just made the whole thing really bottom heavy. Happy Dances everyone.

AWOL

I've been AWOL. (absent without leave...military term. air force brat. sorry) There are just not enough hours in a day since I've been working extra hours at the museum. It's hard to work very part time, then go to full time days when you're not used to it. Two more weeks of crazy hours. And my weekends have been busy too. With another busy one coming up! All I've had time to do as far as blogging goes, is to sneak peeks at those I follow without leaving comments. So many pretty creations from you ladies out there, and I promise that I will get back on track soon. Just know that I'm impressed and inspired by what you've done.

I wanted to play with Paulina's 10 Minute Craft Dash. If you haven't tried it, you really should! It sounds alot harder than it really is. Get your creation "made" in your head, gather your supplies, and go like mad! Often, I do a test card. If it turns out well enough, I make sure my supplies are ready then I make a real card. Sometimes, it needs a little tweaking, so then it's another sample. Today's card needed a little tweaking. It was hard to line up the stamps, but once I practiced, and got in the groove, it went much faster. This took 9 minutes 46 seconds to make. Really. Head on over to the 10MCD and play. Since I was last month's winner, Paulina let me help choose the colors for the current Dash. I wanted pink and green for the coming spring, and gray for the January days we're in right now. You really need to go over and see what amazing creations have been posted, and all made in less than 10 minutes!

First I lined up my supplies. Cut and folded white SU card stock. Cut Bazzill pink card stock 3" by 51/2", 

stamped with an SU stamp (Bliss) using Memento London fog then attached to base. Stamped "happy birthday" from PTI's Birthday Basics set in the same gray ink. Slipped a slide onto skinny white ribbon, then attached it to a wider piece of green SU ribbon, then stuck them to the card. That's it. It looks better IRL. Happy dances everyone.

Blessed Anniversary

Happy 43rd Anniversary to Darnell and her "Mister"!!!  I'm so glad that she was surprised by her friends, especially Ardyth over at MASKerade, whose idea it was that we "send" cards! Stop by Ardyth's blog and check out all the cards and the wedding photos. Head over to Darnell's to offer your congratulations! So, with that, a toast. Raise your coffee cups today in honor of Darnell and Kevin:

To the bride & groom. May they have another 43 years of love and laughter!

And this was Paul and I on April 8th, 1978. A cold, blustery day filled with promise.

He passed away nearly 23 years ago. God blessed our life together, and watched over me afterwards. This July, I will have another wedding photo to post. John and I will celebrate 20 years.

Circle-y

Sometimes when you're travelling around blogland, and specifically stopping at challenge blogs, sometimes don't you just fall in love with a layout or a set of colors?! Happens to me all the time, and for the last few days I have been stopping, staring, loving, leaving, going back, staring, loving the colors over at the Play Date Cafe. I'll show you in a sec., if you haven't already seen them. Then the design came to me and I was off and running.

Inspiration city in this photograph, and the colors are waaaaayyyy fun. Here's what I made:

A bit unorthodox, even for me, but I'll admit it's kind fun. 

All Bazzill cardstock, expcept the white which is SU. PTI stamp and Colorbox ink. Really easy technique, punched circles and punched bits of circles. This would work for so many colors. Let me know if it's worth trying again in another color...Happy Dances everyone.