Blogger's Challenge

This week's Blogger's Challenge is "For the Birds".

Here's a close up. I used a pink card stock which rubbed a white ink pad over. Then I die cut  pink rectangle which still needed something so I doodled over  it in white pen. I set it aside. I attached part of a ripped book page and then I die cut a white triangular trim. I colored the trim green with a Copic marker. I attached it  and used some pearl colored Viva paint pen. I also colored in the inside of the traingles with pink Copic. I attached the rectangular die cut and then I attached the woman. She is an image by Character Constructions. I stamped her on white and colored her with Copics. I stamped the little birds (B Line Design) and then colored those images. Finally I added the saying (not sure who made this).

Thanks for visiting.

Aloha

My internet is BACK and I can surf online at home! The box arrived yesterday!!!!!! I am very excited to be back on the grid.

So is Leo. This is him last week enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Not like the wind this week.

It's the end of March and I expect more of these warm days, eventually.

Tomorrow we move into April and even though it can be on the chilly side (or even snowy), we can get some beautiful days! I hoping for more of the beautiful days than the chilly (or even snowy) days.

I don't think I've shown you this card I made awhile back ( and if I have, you can see it again since it's a fun little bit of paper crafting). It seemed appropriate for the title of this post.

I started with some hot pink card stock by American Crafts. Then I used a Tattered Angels palm tree stamp which I love because of its size. I stamped it twice to get the 2 tone affect. I added some craft paper which I tore because I wanted it to look like sand. Then I stamped Hula Moose Riley (Riley the Moose stamps) .  I colored him with Copics and then I took some white fringe and used some Distress Stain to turn it green for the grass skirt.

I doubled up the antlers to make them pop a bit.

I also added some orange and cream colored Viva Paint Pen dots  and I stamped the word Aloha (Stampa Rosa).

So I am excited my friend Vicky is home from New Mexico where she spends the winter. I am going over this afternoon to see her. It will be great to see her. Otherwise I need to do a bit of cleaning, relaxing and some studio time.

And since aloha means hello and goodbye, I will bid you

"Aloha".

Thanks for stopping by.

10 Things Friday

Here is my latest installment!!!

1- Missed my internet this week. It went out around noon and Monday. Hopefully the box will be at my door this afternoon and by tonight I will be back on!

2- No hockey this weekend. Very weird! Having hockey withdrawels too.

3- Must do some grading-which I hate doing on the weekend. Mid-terms are on Tuesday and Wednesday next week-which means we then move into 4th quarter-the last of the year. This half of the year always goes SOOOOO fast.

4-Sunday is April 1!!!!!!!!! This half of the year always goes so fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And that is NOT an April's Fool Joke.

5-It is exciting at this time of year though. Longer days- often warmer days (though not this past week)-things are greening up, birds are chirping, spring peepers are chirping-on warmer days, bugs are buzzing around...just love it!

6-Got my car registered and inspected for the year! All finished and this eyar it was painless. I love (yeah-right) how the State of New Hampshire says happy birthday- you need to get pay us to get your car registered and inspected. Glad it is done with though and I am running around at the last minute. (You have 10 days into the next month to get inspected but not registered).
Also got my snowtires off...which I am really glad to get my dash board sensors back.

7-Next weekend is Easter (4/8). That is another one of those spring things. Now we just need it a bit warmer.

8-I have missed the whole second week of Creative Chemistry!!! EEK!!!!!!! I was really enjoying my daily dose of learning, but guess that is also on this weekend's list, Catch Up. (If you haven't checked it out, sign up and do!!! You'll learn all about using some great products.) I have already started using my new knowledge and want to learn some more!!!!
9-Quiet (at least at this point) weekend ahead. I am happy about that....would love to finish reading my book and have some studio time and just relax!!!! Plus, I really want to sleep in. Getting up this week has been difficult.
10-Katie and I might go see the new Julia Roberts /Sleeping Beauty twist movie later this afternoon. Hopes so, it would be fun. And tomorrow Dave moves his mom back into her house. This second weekend activity means nice weather is really getting more official. She's been at his sister's in Maine since right around Thanksgiving and now she moves back to the lake-unfortunately means more work for my hubby...but hopefully not too much.

No photos since I don't have my internet quite yet and am doing this at work.
Weird last night with no Project Runway All Stars. We are definately in a tv slump right now.
Have an excellent day and thanks for stopping by.

No internet

My modem at home as died! Alas, (poor me not poor Eurik as they say in Halmet) I have no internet at home. New box is due to arrive at the end of the week. Meanwhile I will have to deal with internet withdrawels...squeezing in a bit of time at work!! (Naughty, naughty me!)

Oh yes, and I woke up to a slightly white dusting this morning at home. Won't last more than a few hours, but still. The difference a week can make!

More Snippets from My NC Journal

Today's post will show you some snippets from various pages of my North Carolina/Outer Banks scrap journal.

I love this little flag banner-I stamped the images with a Darcy's set and I cut them out and strung them with bakery twine. I also cut off the top of some 7Gypsies paper clips-using just the tops and not the clip part.

The journal tag is something I made with an older stamp I had...that works perfect here.

Here's a snippet. You can see I first used a Crafter's Workshop stencil and some red ink to stencil on the image. Then I sprayed the page with some spray ink. There's a red strip of paper...I heart I cut out from some scraps and journaled on. I used a couple of little snips of Martha Stewart paper tape, some red Viva paint pen dots and also this cool Darcy's metal tag.

How about this circle die cut that I wrapped with some 7Gypsies paper tape in 3 places. I attached it and added some bronze colored Viva paint pen dots on the inside. And here's another one of those cool Darcy's tags.

And here's my cool background that I made on some watercolor paper. I stamped this cool Paula Best margarita stamp which I then colored with Copics and used some sparklely pens...you can see it a bit better on the bottom of the 2 photos.

And one last snippet.  I speckled the background paper with a few colors of spray ink and added another spray ink on the brown craft paper I also put on the page. I added  another die cut paper ring with some bronze Viva paint pen inner dots (can you tell when I find a technique I like I reuse it a few times). I also used some 7Gypsies brown paper tape, a gold scrap anchor and the stamped image...can't remember who made the stamp set where you get lots of stamp rings and words you can put into the stamps.

So the weather here has gone from summer last week into February right now-COLD and WINDY!!! It was 25 degrees this morning and last week I was waking up to 55 degrees. It figures!!!!

It does warm up a bit during the day but with cold Canadian wind....

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I had a good day off yesterday too. Did some chores, even some spring cleaning. Worked in the studio and went to my fav. craft store in Massachusetts and Trader Joe's. Have some new toys to play with when I get home later today.

Love it....but there are so many cool new items out I just want to buy them all! How does one decided what to buy?  I did manage but it was tough.

LOL!

Thanks for visiting!

Art History

I like this lady. She is thoughtful and I love her dress- it is inspiring. She is a stamp from Cherry Pie stamps designed from a Gustav Klimt painting-though I don't really know much about that artist.

 

Do you think this is the same woman? It looks similar to her and the dress certainly matches. This is the Gustav Klimt painting called Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. I copied this from Wikipedia and they said this painting was done in 1907 and sold from some huge amount of money. This woman died in 1925 from meningitis and her husband then had the painting but it was confiscated by the Nazi's during WWII. This painting was to stay in Austria but there was a court battle and it was then sent to its rightful owner in the USA. I don't know why the court case was settled this way. 

I also discovered that Klimt painted a second portrait of this woman.

 

Here's her second portrait that I also copied from Wikipedia. I have  never seen this one in any form before.

I do like art from the late 1800's into the the 1930's or so. I know very little about art history so I don't know what this period is called but I would love to learn about about this time and art in general. A few years back I read 2 books about Matisse, who's art I love, and it was so fascinating to find out about the man and about his art.

Here is my card using this lovely lady.  I used purple card stock for the base and on some light orange card stock I used a Couture Creature embossing folder. I trimmed it down to fit the card and I rubbed dark orange ink over the embossed image once I trimmed it down. I also die cut the loops in white and colored them with a purple Copic marker. Finally I die cut 3 small gears from the light orange scraps and then used 2 shades of brown ink to darken them. I also brushed on a bit of Viva paint pen in bronze. Finally I took these tiny alphabet letters I have had for ages and ages and stamped the word immortal on the edge of the clock. I think this woman has become immortal. These little letters are one of my most used stamps. You know, alphabet sets aren't that popular any more. There used to be TONS of them and companies like Technique Tuesday used to make some fabulous ones. I guess with digital art you don't really need the stamps the same way.

So it is Monday, but I am taking a personal day today and staying home. My hope had been to have gotten in late last night after the game...but even though that didn't happen, it is nice to be home and have some fun and relaxation. Not sure what I am going to do today...but  whatever I do, it will be something good.

So have a fabulous Monday!

Thanks for visiting.

Blogger's Challenge-Easter

Here's my card for this week's Blogger's Challenge.

I started with pink card stock that I slightly distressed. Then I used some October Afternoon and die cut the background, put it needed something so I used a pink ink pad and rubbed it over the paper. I attached this to the card.

I then die cut the basket and the bunnies with Cheery Lynn dies. I distressed the basket a bit with some brown ink. I stamped some eggs (Tweety Jill) with various colored inks on white paper and then cut them out. I also cut some pink paper in thin strips to mimic that shiny material (that I can't think of what you call it) one uses to fill up the bottom of an Easter basket. I put that down, glued in my basket and added the eggs. Finally I took my die cut bunny and colored him with some brown and grey ink pads, added a bit of pink to the ears with a Copic marker and used a black Sharpie for the eye.

The Happy Easter is a stamp from Tweety Jill. I used a pearl colored Viva Paint Pen for the pearls along the edge and a bit of pink ribbon to make the bow.

Thanks for visiting !

Latest Arts and Crafts Books

I haven't done a book post for awhile so thought I would do one with some of my latest  (since January) finds for crafty books.

I'll include cooking in that list, as it is a craft, I'd guess you could say. 

I'll also say these aren't all new releases, but just things I have come across I want to talk about.

Knitting:

3 fun books for me

 

Fun! Haven't started any cats yet though-but want to do my Leo. This author also wrote knit your dog-which is also fun but they're all pure breeds so if your a shelter dog lover you probably won't find your dog.

 

This book is cool. I am doing a sea organism scarf making various items...it should be cool I hope. I love the ocean and being able to knit this fun little guys is good for me-and a big change of knitting pace.

 

I finally picked up this book after looking at it for a long time. It is similar to the above sea critter book, but lots of fun things to whip up. I think a leaf and flower scarf to match my sea creature one might be next on the knitting list.

Arts and Crafts:

 

This book has some good ideas but isn't quite as great as I'd hope it would be. I managed to find a copy for $5-which is great for a newly released book.  I will admit I haven't read it as thoroughly as I want to yet though.

 

This book has some fun things to make and I love the little details the author introduces. I like this book as much as her first book, Delight in the Details. This one is specifically for different events/holidays during the year.

 

I am still working my way through this volume, but it is not a bad scrapbooking book. I find with scrapbooking books that there are always pages that you don't really take to and those which give you an idea. I know how to scrap, but I am always looking for new ideas and things to try. I do recommend this book because it has given me lots of ideas to try.

 

I already showed you this book. Now I love the ideas in this book-it is just not written to be very easy follow those ideas. You have to be familiar with and willing to work through some practice items to get to the heart of these.

And finally this book which I picked up for full price because I really like this layering book and her project ideas. Granted, it is a different kind of  art techniques from the Art of Layers. Still, I like this book a lot-enough to pay full price which I don't often do.

Cooking:

 

Picked this up at Costco. A great breakfast book with fantastic photos to make you want to go cook breakfast. I am a breakfast lover and this book I like-especially at the Costco price.

 

And the other yummy cookbook I picked up at Costco was this. If you love to bake desserts or even just look at the fabulous photos...here's another good cookbook...once again-especially at Costco price.

That's my book report for today.

Epitaph

So this hockey season has been  exciting, fun, wonderful, adventurous, wild, enjoyable, magnificent, excellent, fantastic, and lots of other positive adjectives. What a trip! We saw 8 Maine games, a few UNH games, a wild game in 50 degree January weather at Fenway Park in Boston, both a Hockey East semi-final and final and a NCAA game. I went to 2 alumni sponsored pre-game parties and traveled to some arenas I had never been to before. I spent some fun time with my sister-in-law and her husband. I went to the Cumberland County Civic Center in Maine to see a game. I tried lots of new restaurants and new beers.  I had a blast! It is VERY SAD to see the season come to an end, and VERY DISAPPOINTING to see Maine lose last night- especially when in the first half of the game they played SO EXCELLENT! I hate to say it but the second half of the game Minnesota-Duluth just outplayed them. I was so hoping to go back to Worcester tonight to see them play BC, but in the NCAA 16 teams go in and 12 teams leave after this first weekend of playoffs. Now the only team left  from Hockey East is BC. I wish we were playing them tonight, but that is not meant to be.

SIGH!

It is just time to move onto the next things in  life and wait for fall (but let's nut rush it) for next years season to start and all the new adventures that we'll have when next Maine hockey season  begins.

GO MAINE!!!!!!

Game Day

The big hockey game is tonight!!!

Go black bears in your first NCAA appearance since 2007.

Here's 4 almost obsessed fans who will be driving to Worcester, MA to see the game.

It's the University of Maine vs. Minnesota Duluth.

Go blue!!!

10 Things Friday

1- It has been a  gorgeous week weather wise. The longest nicest stretches I remember ever having in March. We've had several  days since Sunday when it hit at last 75-even in the low 80's. Feels like summer!!!! (Thought they say it is going to cool off and go back to the 50's...but I will take that and we'll see when it gets warm again.)
2-Of course at school the seniors have gotten a very early senioritis. Eeks. And the other kids just want to go outside. I'm kind of sick being asked. I do love this but would like to get a little more spring like productive weather.

3-Dave's been working lots and lots of hours lately-this is always his BUSY time of year. I have most evenings alone until at least 8 if not 9 p.m. and so I seem to be getting all these things done. Not that it is his fault that I don't accomplish so much when he is home, but I chose to spend time with him. I worry about him working so much though-it just wears him out.

4- BIG hockey game this Saturday, tomorrow. We're going to the NCAA playoff in Worcester, MA to see Maine play Minnesota State. I am so excited!!!!!! GO MAINE!!!!  7:30 Saturday night the big game starts and I am going to be there-what luck that Maine was sent to play there and not Bridgeport, CT, Greenbay, WI or St. Paul. MN.

5- This is it for going to hockey games for this season since if Maine makes the frozen four it is in Tampa, Florida and we're not going to Florida.

6- I am taking a personal day on Monday and I am so excited about that too. If Maine wins Saturday night we play again Sunday-and we have a 3 game ticket, so we'll be back in Worcester for an 8 pm game, and this seems to be the perfect reason to take a personal day on Monday. Maybe I will work on some fabric art on Monday when I hang home in my sweatpants all day.

So excited about having a day home, even if we don't have a hockey game on Sunday night-and that would be sad!
7- Taking Tim Holt'z first on-line class-Creative Chemistry. It is fantastic. Learning a lot.  Enjoying what I am learning. Glad I signed up!
8-Talk about not being able to get up in the morning! Can't wait until tomorrow to sleep in. With the longer nights, it is hard to go to bed at night too.
9- With it warm, I want ice cream!!! Craving it actually. But have been eating pretty good this week. Promised Katie though tonight we would go to our local seafood place for some seafood and one of their gigantic  desserts tonight.
10-With the warmth, it seems like hockey fever wanes a bit. Isn't it beach weather? Wait a minute, it is only March. Waiting to hear when the big lake has ice out-2 years ago it was March 24th, last year not until April 19th.....I suspect this year it will be very very soon as when you look at all the web-cams you see a lot of open water. They say it's just the north end of the lake that still has some ice....
ADDED-ice went out today-earliest on record since the late 1800's.
And we have spring peepers, already!

And here's a few photos for Friday:

Buds on the trees...getting pretty big in this warm weather.

Anyhow, have a great Friday!!!!

More Beautiful Weather

So here is a view of a page I made for my scrap-journal- from my North Carolina, Outer Banks vacation. It was to commemorate my first and only trip-(so far)- to Archiver's. I started by covering watercolor paper with some old book pages and then giving them a spar with some October Afternoon spray ink. Then  stamped the honeycombs in black ink (stamp by Paper Smooches) and then stamped some red dots (Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous. I colored a few of the honeycombs in with a green Copic. The heart I cut out on white paper and colored with some distress stain. The flower is a Sizzix die cut, with several stamped impressions embossed in white-the circle stamp comes from a set of circles by 7Gypsies-I just stamped the image several times. Finally I added a small butterfly and some green Dimensional Pearls to make its body. Then I used a black Sharpie to journal. Since I didn't have a photo I wanted to make the page a little more creative and different without getting too busy-I wanted the journaling to really be the meat of this page.

So I have a BIG hankering to start working with some cloth. Make some Prayer Flags like I saw in the latest Cloth, Paper Scissors  issue. I want to make some fabric-you know, layering lots of fabric and stitches and all kinds of additions. Think that might be tomorrow's studio time. If I'm not too tired after work. Sometimes I am just too tired to do something that pushes my limits...doing a journal page is challenging but not too challenging...or maybe some would say I am taking the easy way out and not pushing myself far enough.

Did I show you this page? It is really similar to the above page but really different too. Yes, I used a big heart, but for this page I didn't cut out a heart, I drew it on paper I had sprayed with some Tattered Angels and then  colored it in with some red Twinkling H2O watercolor paints. I journaled and then added red (on part of the heart) and pink (on the rest of the outer heart) Viva paint pen dots. To me, it is very simple but a great way to add a favorite memory to a journal when you don't want to add a photo...and I think a scrap-journal is about the topic at hand-the whole topic...not just the photos-those you obviously want a lot of those. And  a happy memory deserves a great big heart, doesn't it?

Anyhow...

Here's some more photos of my pot of tulips- they are really blooming in this gorgeous hot weather we've been having.

I love them.

Blogger's Challenge-Happy Birthday

Here's my entry for this week's Blogger's Challenge...it's a bright Birthday Card. I used purple cardstock which I slightly distress and then created this stain window effect. I did that by die cutting the design (Cheery Lynn Design) on printed light purple paper. Then I used a piece of acetate which I first lightly and randomly colored with purple Staz-On. I glued it down to the die-cut and colored the back side of the acetate with Copic markers. I then backed the whole stained glass image with white paper to really make the colors pop. I like how the purple Staz-On (rubbed on the opposite side of the Copic coloring)  gives it more of a mottle effect.

I attached the stained glas image, ran a bit of paper tape along the bottom edge of it, and added a white die cut here. Then I die cut the word on black paper and the flower on white paper. These dies are all from Sizzix. I used Versa Mark on the top of the flower and then embossed the flower with stream Adirondack embossing powder and then I repeated on the stem and leaves and embossed them in BING leaf embossing powder. Then I added  the last little edge of the flower, a few blue Viva Paint Pen dots, and put a few of these dots along the white triangular trim.

That's my card. Thanks for stopping by to get a closer look.

Let's Go Racing

Wednesday...another beautiful day on tap. Yesterday was beautiful and warm (in the 80's!!!!!!), been sleeping with my window open...lots of my raking is DONE, got to love that since March is often still snowy.  I'm usually lucky to do some raking starting in mid-April,-rushing to do it before the black flies come out -never mind March 20th. I've never had almost all of my gardens cleaned out by the end of March.

Wonder if those bugs will be out earlier this year.

So this warmth makes me so perky when I get home. I actually left work earlier-well not early but not too long after the kids left.  Besides raking I did a couple of scrap pages and watched My Week with Marilyn which I rented through Redbox. Not a bad flick. Trying to place what film the main actor, the guy who plays Colin, has been in.

 

So last week I got back into working on the rest of my photos I took last summer in North Carolina. I worked on photos from our one day road trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte from my friend's house in Raleigh. This photo shows Dave and my good friend Ina outside of the Hall of Fame.

I first sprayed the paper with some copper colored Tattered Angels. Then I used some new Tim Holtz stamps from the road trip set. I stamped the tire tracks all over the page. 

I attached the picture on an angle and stamped the road trip image on the top of the page. The I stamped the circle gauge on white paper, die cut out the image and used straw distress stain to color it. I put a little black brad in the center and then used Ranger Crackle Accents and let it dry overnight. I also used the Crafty Secrets Car Classics clear stamps. I made the little license plate by stamping it on white paper and embossing it in black and then cutting it out. Love how it came out. 

And I added some giant yellow brads, this page just called for it.

I also used the Craft Secrets set to stamp the 2 black racing flags...they are both separate stamps but I overlapped them to give them this classic racing look. I used Versa-mark and black embossing powder to get this look and then used a white pen to color in the white blocks.

I made 4 pages of our trip to NASCAR HoF and I had a blast doing them. I didn't think I would, but it was fun to play with my man stamps. I'll show you more some other time.

Happy Hump Day.

 

Spring has sprung. And we have the weather to prove it!!!

Here's my card to celebrate the day.

I started with a light blue base and I stamped some slightly darker blue circles (Technique Tuesday) at various points on the card. Then I stamped the black circle image a few random times (same Technique Tuesday set). I stamped the daffodils (Flourishes year of flowers set-set #1) on white- I colored and embellished them. Then I cut them out.

I glued down some white trim, attached the flowers and then added some Viva paint pen yellow dots. The words are from Hero Arts stamped on white. Here's a close up of the daffodils. You can see the sparkly centers here.

 

And speaking of pretty spring yellow flowers-

here's a couple of photos of some tulips I have growing in a glass jar

Got to love a little bit of fresh color.

ALSO since it is the first day of spring...

It is the equinox- 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.

Means the days are only going to get longer and longer.

Love it!

Happy First Day of Spring to You!

Another Beach Day

Yesterday was so beautiful. I had windows open and went and sat out and read in the sun. I also raked...raked on March 18th!!! Often we're still white with snow. Not that every garden is raked, but anything you can get to and enjoy some sun and fresh air works for me! And today is suppose to be nice too and I am off to work, but that's ok. With the time change and the longer days I still have daylight time when I get home.

Also, I slept with my bedroom window wide open last night. Wow-can you believe I am doing that in New Hampshire in March?

So here's some scrap-journal pages that I did a while back. Photos from our trip last summer to the Outer Banks. The top page (shown twice) is a view photo and to make the page I started with water color paper, cut to size with holes punched for the album. I used turquoise ink and a stencil by Crafter's Workshop. I used another stencil by the same company and some blue acrylic paint to make the big tie dye looking circles. Then I attached the photo, added some little pieces of yellow paper tape, some cool epoxy sea horse stickers, the word sticker and a circle I die cut and wrote in my journaling.

This page is also on water color paper with some October Afternoon 8x8 paper laid down diagonally. I added the photo, the stamped phrase (Technique Tuesday) which is stamped on white paper in red ink and then cut out, some die cut flowers (in white) with a Tim Holtz page protector sticker and some red stickles. The dots on the page are the die cut pieces that are suppose to be the center of the flowers you see on this page.  Alittle grey ribbon glued down on the page too. Then I sprayed the whole page with some yellow-green October Afternoon  spray ink.

Finally this page-I know the photo isn't too exciting but I see the green background on 98% of the page? It is a home made stamp I carved!!!!! I added a scrap of paper along the top and some ribbon on that. Then I put 

down some of those Tim Holtz page protectors (as seen in the photo above) and a small piece of ball chain over those. Also, I added a small punched out heart. Below you can see the ball chain and my homemade stamp detail.

So found out Maine did make the NCAA playoffs and they are playing in Worcester, MA-my hometown-next Saturday night. We got tickets to the games yesterday and I am very excited. Hockey season is NOT over yet!!! Yahoo!!!

So have a fabulous Monday and thanks for stopping by.