Last Day of May

Wow- May flew by, and now the long weekend is over and we're almost into June. Today I go back to work, tomorrow I take my honors kids to the Aquarium in Boston which should be FUN. So here's a card from the archives...another buggy picnic. The cup is from Stampendous, I believe, the butterflies are old and I don't know who made that stamp, the circles are from Stampington and the silverware from Crafty Secrets.

So time for one of my lists- I love making lists...just LOVE making lists. Today's list is my what I'd like to do this summer...I figure today's a great day to do it just as we get ready to slide into June and into the real start of summer.

MY SUMMER LIST-at least so far!
(underlined words are updated 8/3 and 8/24)
bold is what I did accomplish as I look back on September 21, right before fall begins

1-clean the studio closet and finish my organization there-mostly done,finished in Seeptember

2- go strawberry picking-does blueberry and reaspberry picking count instead

3- make strawberry rhubard pie

4-go down Maine and visit my Uncle Bob-wish I did-I want to go to down Maine

5-read a bunch of books-and maybe read one of those books I've been wondering what all the talk is about-yup, and still reading

6-go kayaking-out on Merrymeeting and it was fantastic

7- drive through Sandwich notch in NH and up scenic route 153 NH-maybe this fall

8-go visit the St. Gauden's National Historic site here in NH-hopefully this fall

9-go on a literary road trip to the Mark Twain house in CT or the Emily Dickenson house in MA-this sounds like a next summer trip

10-NOT buy a lot of art supplies but

11- make some jewelry and mosaics and art-some

12- try making my own sets of clear stamps-the ones I've already designed

13-get out walking-oh yeah!

14-enjoy some outside time-at the beach, in the yard, on a hike,boating...-lots of it!

15-enjoy some screen porch time reading and napping on hot afternoons-had a long perfect afternoon out there today

16-use my chinimea stove and sit out and watch the stars and the fireflies-summer isn't over yet-enjoyed an evening over Labor Day and hopefully more this fall

17-enjoy the lake and the boat-goes with 14-yup-and saw the eagle

18-go camping again with the girls-maybe next year

19-enjoy my NC trip and actually relax at the beach and not feel like I have to do 50 million things while there-oh yes!

20-maybe get some hours at the lake and make a bit of cash-just a few but better than none

21-sell some more things on eBay so I can actually get my stash smaller and make my piles disappear-sold several things and will continue for a few more weeks 

22-make art besides card making and scrap booking-goes with #11

23-go blueberry or raspberry picking-yup

24-grow lots of veggies in my garden-yup

25-have fun-bien sur!-yup

26-explore some new things and places that I don't know about today-the eagle sightings, NC, boating adventures,and more

27-have adventures of all sorts-yup

28-sleep in but also get up and enjoy some beautiful sunrises-not sure about sunrise but have enjoyed some early mornings

29-grill and chill with some new recipes or rediscover some old recipes I haven't made in a LONG time-hmmm... does Nana's rhubard-pineapple jam count

30-plan a winter vacation
31- finally watch all of season 2 of Trueblood and watch Season 3 too!-did it!
32-make relish from my garden veggies
33-practice my French some more-only a tiny tiny bit
34-watch some great sunsets-oh yeah, did that!
35-spend some good times with friends and family-that I have also done!
36- don't let the college kid make me too stressed out or feel too old-yup
37-make ice cream-the vanilla malted milk ball was the best
38-clean and organize under the cellar stair
39-knit- a bit
40-go to the Wiers Drive In and watch a movie

and...

let's see what else I can think of later and how many of these I'll accomplish! This is a BIG list, but the sumemr gives me lots of days to do these things.

Happy Day all

thanks for stopping by

Blogger's Challenge-Shimmer

Here's my entry to this week's Blogger's Challenge- Shimmer. This is a simple masculine card, but you can see the pine needles sparkle and shimmer with a bit of gold emobssing powder in the green. The pine needles are by Hero Arts- the saying is from Character Constructions and the light trim along the brown background strip is from???? Good question, I'm not sure. All of this is on blue cardstock with some little gold dots just for a bit more shimmer effect.

Thanks for stopping by and looking!

Blooming

Flocks from my garden...just gorgeous.

And my azalea is blooming-I have this gorgeous orange plant that came from a little shoot at my parent's house but is now a full sized tree.

And my favorite, though I don't have any in my yard, Lilacs. Love them. They smell fantastic!

And here's another card from the archives...more buggy picnic fare. This card starts with red cardstock and this plaid yellow paper on it. The clock stamp (Time for Tea) is by Stampington, as is the teapot. The bird above the lock is a punch out, and I added a little red heart  stickee (Hero Arts) to the clock. The saying is from a Stampington stamp-its the one with the Queen on it, but I just cut out the saying. That went down then the teapot which I added some flowers too. The bees are from 2 different stamps, the little one is from All Night Media-one of my first stamps (a little set of bugs that I bought about 12-13 years ago when I started stamping) and I don't know offhand who made the bigger bee. And the postmark is from Autumn Leaves. I have a whole set of tea related stamps- just love them-seeing I'm not a coffee gal but a tea gal, and something about them is so wonderfully vintage in a homey kind of way that I just go nuts for them. I guess we all have stamps we tend to lean towards, tea, the seashore, clocks, travel are some that I tend to lean towards. What about you?

Have a great Monday-I am waiting for my hubby and daughter to leave for their Jet skiing fun so I can have some down and quiet time here at the house...its just plain hot and humid right now and cloudy, which keeps it cooler, and they're nerves and bossiness (the daughter's bossiness not the hubby's) is driving me nuts. But they'll be gone SOON.

Have a great Monday!

Summer has Arrived

It's so warm today...feels like July. I went to the lake at my Mother-in-Laws and chilled out on the dock and WENT SWIMMING-first time this season. The water was cold but felt good. Finished my book so now I can start my latest Sookie book- Dead Reckoning.

So far its been a fun weekend.. Yesterday was cloudy and cool all day, but I did get my veggies planted and played around in the studio. Today the sun came back, with the massive droves of mosquitoes. Yuk. And last night we went to see the latest Pirates of Carribean (IV) which was enjoyable and we ran into some friends at the theatre and went out for a drink afterwards. Had some yummy tiramasu too.

They're saying this week coming up is going to be HOT-like 90. Went from cool rainy April weather to this summer heat.

But I'll take it.

Have a great Monday-Memorial Day holiday if you're from the US.

Long weekend-almost

It's almost the start of the weekend-one more day of work...for me, I'm grading freshman writing assessments today, no kids, but still a busy day of work...but I don't have to keep kids together. After today, I have 3weeks of teaching left and a week of exams and workdays before vacation starts...can't wait. It will fly too. I'm ready...ready for this weekend too although right now I have no definite plans...but that's ok with me.

So will come back and post photos later when I can get onto a real computer...got to check out the new Hero Arts stamps too...hope this isn't just a little peak. Have a great day!

Here's some photos from a cherry themed book I did a few years back. Cloth and paper on a board book, cherries for spring/early summer everywhere.

Love it!

More from the Archive

More archives today. Here's a card from 2 years ago!

I called this whole set of cards I made The Buggy tea Party.

This card started with a red cardstock base and I added to that first some plumish cardstock and then some light purple polka dot paper. Eyelets were added.  I used water color markers to stamp the flowers along the bottom of the card. The tea pot is from Oxford Impressions- but I stamped and colored that on plain paper and cut that out. Once I attached it I stamped the little butterflies (Hero Arts) and hand added the dotted fly lines. And I added the trim. The saying on the red paper is from River City Rubber Works. Lastly, I added the postmark and posted mark using Autumn Leaves Postal set...another set I just adore and use a lot.

My challenge to myself with this theme was to make a whole set of tea related cards using insects on each card somehow...I think this works quite well... a bit fantasty...a bit tea pot let outside after a great afternoon picnic.

Another BEAUTIFUL day here in New Hampshire...I think summery weather has actually arrived...not too hot, not too cold, clear skies.

GOT TO LOVE IT!

Happy Day!

Less is More

This week is

Butterflies!!!

Here's my entry this week- missed out last week since my computer was on the fritz!

I started with a white card which is stenciled on some orange mini stars using some confetti remnants- you know the left over paper they punch confetti out of. Then I added an orange swirl die cut and a white die cut flower. Both the swirl and the flower were punched out of grungeboard- left overs from a different project- which I then painted.The butterflies are by Hero Arts, stamped on white and colored pink and orange- a color combination I don't use very often but had a hankering to try. Finally, I added the saying which is by Cornish Heritage Farms.

Thanks for stopping by!



STILL...no computer

I'm working remotely, because I MISS writing my blog. I think its going to be awhile before I go out and spend the cash for a new computer...since I want a Mac...and it's not like they're $300.

So here's an OLDER tag I made, but to celebrate the sudden return of the sun- unexpectedly too- this works. Wonderful temperatures and weather have arrived-YAHOO! Just before the upcoming 3 day weekend which they say will be pretty good...but I live in a tourist area and I'm not sure I believe them since they want people to come up, which they won't come if it's raining- so sometimes I think the TV weatherpeople say nice weather when it won't be particulary nice. GRRR.

I got to get some photos though to show you have my studio organizing is going- FANTASTIC. The right storage systems (I am finding) hold more items in far less space than those storage containers that I had been using and didn't really work all that well...it's truly amazing to me. I got some CD/DVD shelves which don't jut out into the room very far and seem to be holding masses of supplies. Now I just need to figure out how to store my vast collection of paper punches-LOL.

So this tag started with stamping some writing (CHF) on a blabnk tag- then coloring with pink ink by rubbing the whole pad right on the tag. Love how it comes out kind of messy. Then I stamped the flowers (Hero Arts) and colored with with Jelly Roll pens. I stamped the lace (Invoke Arts) in brown to match the background words. The small stamp is off a French cube (???I can't remmeber who made it) onto greyish cardstock and then cut out and attached. The sun word-(Stampington) was stamped in black as is the circle word (Autumn Leaves). Shine, sun, get my drift? LOL. I love this Autumn leaves set-its one of my most used stamps. Amazing to me also how some sets of stamps you don't think you'll use much and they get used A LOT! Finally I sketched an outline of the tag- and Voila!

happy Day-

Hope the sun is shining for you!

I'm desperately missing my computer

I can only do so many things with my iPad...and I'm glad I have it...but I've lost photos and blog addresses and movies I had stored...yuk!!!! In a way it's freeing tO unhook myself from the Internet...but in another way, I feel left out of the big Internet world. Well, we shall see when I feel like spending the cash to buy a new computer...I want one but don't want to spent money on one. Such a dilemma.
So it's been a BUSY weekend here in New Hampshire. No crafting, but am working in putting up some new storage units and organizing them. Bought a few more items at IKEA which Katie and I went to Friday afternoon after my dentist appointment (2.5 hours later) as they started a crown on one of my teeth. Yesterday we saw the sun for few hours, so I went and bought some annuals and planted them in the pots on my deck. Look great compared to the brown dirt but now we're back into the clouds and damp again. Going to a tea party this afternoon for a couple of hours, and then it's wrapping up the weekend before another busy week at school. Next weekend is a long weekend,Memorial Day, which will be nice and is considered the official start to SUMMER! Tomorrow Kate starts her summer class and orientation for a summer job. Anyhow I MISS posting phoTos of art, think I could put stuff on a CD and then post through the hubby's computer...maybe you'll see some later this week.
Happy Day!

Still no computer

I still have no computer but am working remotingly off my hubby's . And its still raining. Yesterday we got Katie moved home...just as we arrived home and were unloading it started to POUR...and of course as soon as everything got inside it stopped raining. Go figure-huh? But before we climbed the 66 steps up  (6 times each) since her dorm doesn't have an elevator, we went and had a nice lunch at this local seafood restaurnt-Newick's right on Great Bay to celebrate Katie finishing up her freshman year in college. Yahoo! And we found out her summer course is going to run, so she's right back to class on Monday morning, but she'll be commuting for that.

Well thought I had some photos on a disc, but the disc appears to be empty--grrr- so now I'm going to have to check IF I can get to my photos of this old machine...not that there was anything too important on there...oh well..I'm back to work today so won't be able to check til then. Sorry- was hoping to show you some photos.

Happy Day!

Computer virus

Seems I have computer virus-ugh! Luckily work has given me an iPad although I have no photos on it to share. This may take a bit before I'm squared away-grumble grumble groan and snarl! Hopefully will be back soon!

Another Monday is Here

So first of all, I've finally started reading a new book-finally-I hadn't literally opened my last book or any book for 2 weeks...just no time to read. But anyhow, yesterday since it rained all day, I scrapepd for hours-another fabulous day in the studio-and then I finished reading my book. So anyhow, here's my newest read! 

 So here's a page from Northern California, Crescent City to be exact and Redwood National Park right south of Crescent City.

Cool sign to show locoation-where we were at and where some of the next pages were set at. I punched some notebook edging on some trimmed down paper. Then I added a tag or 4, some 7Gypsies tape, some twine and some green Viva pearl dots.

I

At the Crescent City pier, a bunch of snoozing seals on a dock. I distressed the bacjrgound and stamped circles, hand wrote out the words, stamped the  arrows, added some die cut sanddollars and starfish...

And on this page, I added some plaid paper, a tag which I stamped with Hero Arts clouds and a paperbag Studio saying, some 7Gypsies tape and some die cuts plus those Viva pearl dots.

And lastly, this page is first made by stamping a big checkerboard stamp on the background...I added the photo , some Hot Off the Press stickers, a die cut tag, a piece of Basic Grey paper and a die cut tag...plus some more Viva dots.

So have a great Monday... our National Honor Society is putting on blood drive today so I need to be there 2 blocks out of the 4 today...then I need to bring Katie back to school this evening since she has a physic review session for one of her finals this week...probably no studio time today...but since I got tons of time this weekend-that's ok...I guess.

Happy Day!

Sunday Down Day

So in honor of a day at home today, here's my Sunday card...love this cute mushroom house from CHF which I pictked up last symmer during they're closing down sale. I colored it with Copics and basically just mounted it on on this great polka dot cardstock. The little house saying is from an older set by Green Pepper Press and then I added some

 white heart lace and some Viva pearl dots. Just a fun but pretty little card.

So today I am going to play in my fun space and try to finish up a bunch of scrapping...did the same FRiday afternoon for 3 hours and it was glorious. Yesterday we got Katie's big things home just as the rain began...luckily we got the futon matress moved in before it really rained, and after an afternoon nap we went to see The Conspiracy-the movie about Mary Surrat and Abraham Lincoln's assassination...Robert Redford did the film and I really enjoyed it a lot. I also got to have a burger at Rocky's yesterday....Katie's been telling me about this burger place in Newmarket,NH for awhile now and got to have a Hawaiin burger with pineapple and mango sauce-was good...not usually my style to have something so adventurous but yesterday it just hit me and I enjoyed that too. Today I'm half tempted to drive abck to favorite craft's store spring yard sale BUT...first of all its an hour each way...with the $4/gallon cost of gas...and I went there Thursday after work...and of course spending the extra for gas is cutting into my spending cash for supplies...so maybe playing in the fun space is better for me than going...but I'm tempted...maybe if I got up earlier since it started at 8 a.m. and I was reading in bed then...its REALLY dark foggy grey this morning.

Busy week ahead...we have the NHS blood drive tomorrow..I'm off Wednesday to move the rest of Katie's things and Miss Kate home...and I'm off Friday to get a crown done on my tooth. Plus try to get some work done at school in between...

Have a great Sunday...hope yours is sunnier and cheerier than mine here in the fog. 

Moving Day Part1

Today we move home the BIG things from Katie's dorm room. She's not quite done yet; Wednesday she will finish up her freshman year (wow-already), and I'll need to finish moving her home then, but today we move the big stuff like the fouton-since she and I aren't going to carry it down 4 floors nor fit it in my car. Before it rains too...and they say rain for the next week practically. Yuk.

So in honor of college finals and the stress that they bring... here's a card for Katie- plus I know she does NOT like squirrels...so I have to tease and to make her smile with one...who resist this guy though?

All stamps are Paper Smooches...I added the line and the hangers on the hearts.

It's Such a BEAUTIFUL Friday

Its a gorgeous day today...rather low key at work and now I'm home, windows open and the sun shining. Not a bad Friday the 13th. A bit buggy to go outside-those nasty May blackflies we get that swarm you...YUK!- but Katie went out to a friend's house and I'm home alone for a few hours-HURRAY! Studio time!!!!!!!

So now that blogger is back up let me show you a recently made card-not this week- I've hardly had any studio time this week, but back a coupe of weeks ago. I used blue grey card stock and this blue plaid paper. The scene is Stampendous...colored with Copics. The shells are all die-cuts, colored, and the words are Tweety Jill from one of her ocean sets. I outlined the plaid paper in black to mimic the edge of the stamped image, and I stamped some brown definition over and over along the bottom of the plaid paper to distress it a bit.

Its definately how I feel today- I feel very summery.

In fact if it wasn't so buggy or if they weren't predicting rain the rest of the weekend I'd go out and do some gardening and maybe go buy some plants...but the bugs are thick right now...but they'll slow down a bit in another week.

Happy day to you.

Enjoy this very exciting time of year (we mostly have leaves now and it is SO fantastic to see green and color in the flowers and trees blooming...I can't take it its so GREAT!)

LOL

A Long and Busy Day Ahead

Taking Katie to school this morning BEFORE work (got to get out of here by 6 a.m.-even losing 15 minutes in the morning can be so much time that you have to run around like a crazy gal) and then needing to pick her up at 5:30 p.m. so I'm going to  my favorite craft store in between work and getting Katie...and I'm so excited about the shopping...but there's a lot of day to get through first.

So here's my latest card. It's made the scraps from a disaster card. I was stamping all these little pennants from Paper Smooches "Hang in There" set and it came out icky, so I punched them out with a sqare inchie  punch, attached them to this bright blue paper strip which I in turn attached to a white card. Then I added the row of pennants fown the side of the blue strip, colored them, added some Dimensional Pearl dots, stamped a couple of hearts and colored them red and then stamped the little saying (Wordsworth Art Stamps). I really like it. AND I feel good that I didn't waste a whole card that flopped and that I made something out of it that I really like.

I do.

Happy Thursday! 

Hump Day, already?

Yahoo, this week isn't dragging, and its Wednesday. Katie's home- not for good but they have reading days before exams at UNH and she decided to come home to study since we only live 35-40 minutes away. It nice having her around, at least so far, I should say.

Lately I've been in a mood where I am on myself for not getting more accomplished when I'm home. Like I think the house should be cleaner and less cluttered-(ok, it should be, but it would just get cluttered again if I cleaned it-especially with Kate around too) or the gardens should be all primmed up (gardening is a several month joy, not a rush to get them ready and have them look magazine-ish at all times). So goes the argument in my head. ERRRR.  I need to get over it, but I will say I could clean up some of the clutter up in my studio which is presently flowing into the hall as I clean up the studio...does this make sense? I seem to clean and only make more of a mess.

Beyond those trivial discussions-here's my card for today. In celebration of the garden. I made this by stamping an older stamp I have (either Stampa Rose or PSX-but I think Stampa Rose). Its all once piece, the garden inchies and the cool frame around it. I stamped it on white, colored it with Copics and then used blue ink and a stiple brush to slightly color the inchie background. I then attached my stamped image to some printed 7Gypsies paper in in rusty brown color and trimmed it down to make a little frame. Then I made a turquoise blue card and put a bunch of Tim Holtz paper tape down in a grid pattern on the card. I attached the stamped image and put eyelets in the four corners. Voila. My card. I really didn't think it needed any words on it, makes more of an art piece. Ha!

Thanks for visiting my blog.

More Paper Smooches

Here's another card I made using Paper Smooches stamps. This time I used the Scooter clear stamp sheet.

I started with this great bright blue cardstock. I rounded the corners and then I distressed the front by taking the toot-toot saying and stamping it on with yellow. I stamped the scooter on white, colored it with red and grey, then added some blue Dimensional Pearls to the seat and the front bar. I also stamped flowers on the fenders, colored them and used some Dimensional Pearls on them too. I attached the scooter to the card. Then I stamped the flag and colored the actual flag part with more Dimensional Pearls.

Once attached ,I stamped the sayings on the card, then the flowers all over the background. I colored the flowers, and then added some dabs of Dimensional pearls on my rounded corners, and Voila, there is my fun card.

Paper Smooches

You can probably tell I love Kim Hughes stamps...I've posted a lot of cards using her stampsby CHF  in older posts. But this past week I ordered some of her new company's stamps-Paper Smooches and they arrived the other day. They're silly and fun...they're as fun to play with as the cards you end up making from them. So here's one of the many I made the other day.

 

So for this card I used red cardstock and covered it with some great red polka dot distressed style paper. Then I put down some flowered paper tape across the middle. I die cut the center tag in white and stamped the images on it. All the images are from the Boob Tube set except the bird which is from The Hang in There set. I colored them and outlined the tag in red. I took the little circle stamp and stamped the corners of the tag in black, coored them red and added a dot of bronze colored Viva Pearls. Once that had dried, attached the tag. Then I took one of 7Gypsies new number tags and cut in half. I colored the 5 red and attached it at the top and after outlining the bottom, I wrote in the little Live at Five.

I think both of these cards are pretty fun, but could they not be with these stamps?

Thanks for stopping by!

Less is More-White

I've never made a stamp-less card before, never mind one totally in white. But what a blast. I really enjoyed doing this and it all just seemed to flow quite easily.

So I started with white cardstock for the card base. Then I texturized the background (with an argyle pattern) and then textured some white cardstock with dots and cut the flower from it. I assembled the flower, reversing the middle ring of petals so the dots went downward not up. I think it helped make the flower rings stand out from each other a bit.  Before I attached the flower I put down 2 rows of thin white lace, attaching them in opposite directions to make them into 1 thick lace row with the little lace hearts pointing in the up and down directions. At the top I attached 3 die cut butterflies cut from white cardstock that I did not texturized, and to those I added some clear Viva glass effects to make their bodies and antennae.

I only wish I had some textures or words so I could have added those in white, but I don't think it really needs that. It just would have been nice, that's all.

Thanks for stopping by and looking.

It's a Beautiful Morning

The sun is shining, the birds are singing the sky is SO blue.

Happy Mother's Day on this beautiful day.

Its amazing how in 1 day the woods around my house is starting to get green- lots of little leaves/buds today and so I bet by this evening they'll actually be leaves. Its kind of cool watching them come out.

So here's a beautiful day card for you. I used grey/blue cardstock with a piece of 7Gypsies tape. The scene is a new one from Stampendous which I stamped on white and colored. The little sea creatures are die cuts which I colored with yellow, brown and light pink Copics. The saying is from Artistic Outpost.

My kind of card, simple but complete.

Have a Happy Mother's Day all.

Eventful Weekend

I'm not a big fan of horse racing but the first Saturday in May is Kentucky Derby day. Just a little fact that may or may not mean anything to you, but it does mean another sign of spring and the better weather has arrived.  We usualy watch the Derby on tv...its take all of about 5 minutes to watch...May in New Hampshire is the first month of summery weather...well maybe not really summery but close to it, and all the summer restaurants and places are opening up. So it feels summery even if its not always quite that warm. Today is also National Scrapbooking Day-and I made a couple of pages in honor of that. Tomorrow is Mother's Day too...What a weekend, huh?

So I got many little chores done today, that's a good thing. I've needed to do a few of these little items...but they're the kind of things it's easy to put off and eventually they all pile up and you've just got to attack them. So today, I did them in a nice leisurely way. No stress...just puttering. My kind of cleaning. We had a big thunderstorm this afternoon too...that broke up the afternoon too.

Here's my card for the day...using Kim Hughes/CHF stamps from the ocean set. Except for the hello, that's Hero Arts.  I stamped the waves, and I colored the bottom of the card below those in blue and then took a darker blue to highlight the waves. I lightly distressed ink the sky-using Kim Hughes/CHF stamps from the summer set to stamp the clouds on white, which I then cut out and attached. I also stamped the dolphin on white, coloted it and cut it out before attaching it to the card. Then I glued down some sheer blue ribberon along the bottom, added the saying and some cream pearls from VIVA paints.

Its Almost the Weekend

I am writing this Thursday night, and its about 8 p.m. and its not pitch dark!!!! I love it. I love long days. Its a bit chilly out there, but the sun came out later in the day and the rain stopped.

Now its Friday morning-or will be when this posts. Katie's coming home today...she's got about a week left to school...at least actual school time since they have reading days before exams. Then she's home for the summer. I know she wants to get home, but I think she's a bit bummed out lately. Exam stress... roomate been's bugging her...needing more than her usual part time sumemr job. She really does need to RELAX...but I can't make her relax- and as a mom you worry about them, but she's also at this point where you can't say anything to her, she doesn't listen or want to hear you, and then she interupts you when you do speak. She's kind of a direct and rigid person. Has to have everything laid out and planned out...I worry she might be ready to implode over some little diddlely thing...but its probably just me being a mom and worrying. Probably for no real reason either. That and I worry how its going to be this summer-it might be a tricky summer, but I'll be glad for her to be home.She is my little girl.

So here's my card for FRIDAY-(yahoo-Friday...almost the weekend...I love the weekend). This card is perky and a bit playful. I wonder how it would look if I hadn't stamped the tree trunks onto the white card itself and moved them higher onto the die cut circle...and then did the heart border...I am going to have to try that and see what I get.

I used white cardstock and die cut a graph paper circle. All stamps except the words are Kim Hughes/Cornish Heritage Farms. I stamped the trees, colored them. The butterfly, colored and added some small Viva Dimensional Pearl dots. I stampd the hearts, colored them and then drew in a dotted line to connect them. Then I stamped the bird, colored in the beak and legs and added the eye. The words are an old tiny stamp from Wordsworth...are they even still a stamp company? Does anyone know...they had great sayings. Its hard to find good sayings laterly-there's lots of good card type phrases, but quotes and sayings are a lot harder to find than they were back a few years. Guess things come and go. I stamped the words 3 times as though it was the butterfly trail.

Have a happy Friday!

A Cherry Hello

OK, a pretty bad pun on a cheery hello, but on this dark and very wet morning, let me show you the cherry blossoms on Al. They are quite cheery for a dreary moment here in New Hampshire.

Al is a weeping cherry tree in my backyard. Now I don't usually go around naming trees, but this was a gift from my co-workers when my dad passed away 6 1/2 years ago, and it was appropriate because my dad loved to work in the yard and he loved trees and shrubs, he wasn't really a gardener per say. So we named this tree after him, a memory of him, and right now he is blooming beautifully.

I suppose I should take a photo  to show you all of Al, but he's a big white bloom right now.

Got to love spring colors!

And now onto my card for the day...which has also got a tree covered in blooms-just like Al.

I used Kim Hughes/CHF stamps for this card. I started by stamping a row of the flowers across the card in a place I might add ribbon or tape. I colored them with Copics. Then I die-cut the diamon and stamped the tree on it, which I colored and also the little bee. I attached the diamond shape on and then used some fun little butterflies. Finally I stamped the saying on white paper, which is not from Kim Hughes or CHF. I actually don't know who made the stamp but it was part of a big set of stamps I won last winter on eBay and its got many encouraging saying on it. So I cut this one out of the paper and then attached it. Finally I added some lilac dots (Viva) onto the corners of the diamond.

So, on another grey morning here in New Hampshire...let me wish you a cheery (or cherry) hello.

Less is More-Thank You

This week at the Less is More Challenge is a Lucky Dip-cards for thank you or congratulations.

Check it out at http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/.

Here's my entry; I'm going with a pretty Thank You card on white cardstock. Unfortunately from the photo you can't get the feel for the flowers which are purple from Dimensional Pearls, but what I did was dab 4 But I'm ahead of myself. I started with the leaves in a bright green Staz On ink and then stamped the blossoms in black. Both of these stamps are from the now out of business Cornish Heritage Farms and designed by Kim Hughes. The Thank You is from Inkadinkado. Then, as I previously mentioned, I added some purple Pearls to make the flowers pop.

I think the photo would be brighter had we had sunshine outside, but since its rainy and grey, the affect is a bit muted, but still...I'm happy with this card. This is one of those projects where I do think Less is More.

Thanks for stopping by.

Some Rain and Clouds

The sun is gone for a few days they say...but maybe I'll be more into work...not that I don't work at work, and not that I feel miserable there...but with leaves coming out and grass getting green and daffoldils blooming- who wants to be inside teaching and grading and all that jazz?

Not me...but I will make the sacrifice. (LOL)

So yesterday I came home and made date nut bars (my latest obsession) from dried sour cherries I bought at Costco instead of dates. Those cherries are SO yummy, soft but chewy, sweet but sour. That and coffee flavored frappes...man, think I could live on those 2 items right now.

Some pretty daffoldils blooming right now in my garden. I never used to think much of daffodils, but I have become such a big fan. They just get thicker and more blooms every spring.

And here below is one of the hyacinths blooming also.

So here's a card from the other day I made when I was playing with all my CHF, KIm Hughes stamps. Along with those I also used some from the Kids set at Technique Tuesday that I bought last Friday at the Creating Keepsake Convention vendor show. I like the saying "go out and play" and I don't think it needs to be used just with kids.

 It could be used with me to go out and garden too. Or go to the beach...or take a roadtrip (though right now gas it just about hitting $4.00 a gallon AGAIN...man-o-man. That really hurts at the pump.)

Anyhow...back to this card.

So first I tried out some Tattered Angels spray that I also got at the convention. I've never used it before, and it is fun, gives a little sparkle, though I don't think I've got it all quite down yet. Then I die cut some of this circles with a Nestibilities die I also picked up. I used 7Gypsies graph paper to cut them from...I thought the theme of summer and the beach and going out to play meant putting away all that school/work related graph paper. I stamped the waves (CHF/Kim Hughes) and outlined them with some darker Copic. Then I stamped the bathing suit, sandels and beach supplies-then colored those with Copics. Lastly I used the Technique Tuesday saying stamp and colored the word out. I attached them all on the car, trimmed the saying circle since it was hanging off the sides, and Voila-my card. Not exactly beach weather here today, but a good reason to show you this card.

Since we all are entitled to dream.

So go have your own dream today and make it a good one.

I Wish

Now that I'm back into the work groove, I wish it was vacation again. I could stay home and do some of the cleaning I didn't do last week. I could finish reading my book. I could...and I would spend a lot of time in the studio and make things and organize and maybe even vaccuum the rug.

But I am a responsible adult who has worked her whole adult life and so I shall go to work and be responsible.

Good thing I love my job teaching.

It would be horrible if I didn't.

I love teaching but its NOT my passion the way art has become.

But I do love my job and I really like teenagers...if you can believe that.

I still wish sometimes I could work in the art field and design things like rubber stamps or cards or items for a big company.

I think that might be quite a lot of fun.

Be a 7Gypsies designer or maybe a Hero Arts designer.

Or maybe run my own stamping store. Some cute little place a little bit cluttered with art on the walls.

But I would probably either hate either of those or suck at either of those.

So anyhow...

Now that I have talked about one of my wishes...(more to follow some other day)...here's some art for you to look at.

A card I made last week using a new Stampendous cling mount stamp which I colored with Copics and used ink to distress the sky like sunset. I put it on greenish paper with a grungeboard die cut that I inked and a heart die cut and painted red. Then I added the words which come from a Tweety Jill ocean set.

I love the ocean. I love working by the ocean and somedays smelling the salt air and living fairly close to the ocean. I don't have to wish that one.

Happy Day!

Back to Work

Vacation is really over now- its Monday and its back to work. They say the best weather of the week today and then it gets wet...glad I'm not off and the rain will make the workweek easier. BUT...when I got up...there's some light on the horizon...jusr starting to brighten up...that's a huge change from before vacation...and I love when we get light compared to winter when its always dark-or so it seems.

So here's my card for the day...one I made yesterday using my CHF Kim Hughes stamps. Its playful and fun, and quite simple. Everything is stamped directly on white cardstock, colored with Copics to have some bright colors. I did add some Viva blue dots on the shark bubbles and I did add some Viva green on the tall seaweeds on the bottom, but its just plain FUN!

Happy Monday...hopefully I can wake up and get moving better than I feel right now. Hope you can too.  

May Day

It's MAY First! WOW! This is an exciting month as the weather gets more summer like and the yard and gardens get greener and full of blooms. I love May...and hope for a few weekday rainy days here and there to keep the kids at school more focused...as we start tomorrow (wow-vacation flew) the final countday until summer vacation.

Can you believe it?

So here's some scrap pages I've recently made in the past couple of weeks. Back to California-in particular the very northern coast at Crescent City and Redwood National Park. Above is a sign we saw just before we saw a bunch of wild elk. I used a Basic Grey large leafy stciker and die cut the deer and I also die cut the slide mount which I stamped and colored and added a die cut center from another die cut.

Here's the lighthouse just north of the town wharf, I believe it is called Battery Point. To make this I used some 7Gypsies Morroco paper, some Tim Holtz and 7Gypsies tape, some die cut stars (colored) and a die cut tag, plus some stickers (Hot off the Press). The lighthouse just was the outlin and I colored in the top and though you can't see it, I stamped some speckley brown mini dots on the body. I actually put the sticker down on white paper and then cut the whole thing out once I'd colored it.

 Here's those elk the sign told us to watch out for. Not sure I like this page a lot...the paper kind of looks like napkins, but I made the slide mounts and filled in the cneters and I die cut the bird and colored it. The saying is from Postmodern Stamp.

A foggy coast view from up high...I used 7Gypsies tape, lots of Dimensional Pearl dots, a 7Gypsie's tag, ditcut bird and Hot Off the Press word at the top/title and the big scallops shell which I colored in and used some more Dimensional Pearls on.

And here's a sign we don't see here in New Hampshire, even at the coast. I used some wave paper to represent the water, added some 7Gypsies gaffer tape, stamped the word escape in blue and then outlined it in black, stamped the little car (Fontworks) on the bottom corner and added a stamped tag (Autumn Leaves) and the ship's wheel. I also distressed the background.

So its a pretty blue skied Sunday here, the air is cool but the sun is so warm...bit too chilly in the screen porch but that's ok. I made tons of cards...used my Kim Hughes stamps by CHF...was having so much fun-will show you some this week once I load them on. Sometimes its just fun to make light silly cards...later I'm going to make some dried cherry bars- a switch from my date nut bars- and should go back to work on organizing my studio but don't think that's on today's docket...maybe a nap...it is Sunday the day before I need to go back to work after a week's vacation...was a GREAT week off, felt like I did some fun things and did a few chores and relaxed...can't wait for summer so i can do this for a few weeks instead of just one. More tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting.