10 Things Friday

So with tomorrow being December first, and with the holidays just around the corner - thought I would write a holiday list this week.

This week- 10 things I would like to do this holiday season-10 things out of the ordinary usual holiday things. 10 Things I have either never done and would like to or haven't done in recent holidays.
A Santa's List so to speak.

Ready?

1-Make a gingerbread house- and not one of those kit houses.

2-Although we always get a fresh cut tree- and I wouldn't change that- I would love to have a second tree- a white tree. No place to put it in my house right now.

3-I would love to go to NYC and go window shopping and see the Rockettes  Christmas show.

4-I would love to have time to bake a lot of different cookies-make myself a big assorted cookie platter.

5-I would love to have my Christmas cards magically all written and addressed and I wouldn't never have to do anything-except maybe make the cards!

6-Go to a Boston Pops or some other orchestral Christmas concert and get all dressed up to go. This one doesn't quite work because I did go to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra last weekend. Put that was a rock show, not quite the orchestral type I was thinking of.
7-That working things out with families would be easier-you know, for those family get togethers. Everybody seems to want a piece of you at the same time and there is only so much time. Cuts into the holiday fun time. Adds a lot of useless stress. Not that it is so bad to get together with our families...but  my family seems to be stuck in the must be on Christmas get together day-no flexibility- and then they end up mad at me.
8-That we could definitely have a white Christmas. (The only time I really want it snowy and white.)
9- Would love to spend a day in my pjs and watch old Christmas movies and do absolutely nothing.
10-And spend another day in my pjs and reread a Christmas Carol or some other holiday classic.

How about you?
What  out of the ordinary things would you love to do this holiday season if you had a chance?

How about a cheery little holiday card to go along with all this holiday Santa lists?
If you insist....
ha-ha

I embossed some red polka dots on white card stock  (Cornish Heritage Farms) and then added the red with white polka dot paper. These images are all from Paper Artsy. I stamped and then colored the images with Twinkling H2O watercolors.

Enjoy your Friday and make it a great one!

It isn't winter yet, is it?

Last Saturday the weather changed. We had a really warm Thanksgiving and Black Friday, and then-BRRR. Cold front came down from Canada.

This week I have had to pull out my winter coat-I was putting it off for as long as possible, but unfortunately, winter is on its way.

Wonder when we will get snow???

OK, I don't wonder that...I am not a snow-bunny.

So here's the card art for the day.

All images are from Paper Smooches except the words.

The igloo is on the new Kismet Winter Grove set.

It is also on an older set from Cornish Heritage Farms when Kim Hughes designed for them.

I used it on some sparkley blue paper and then mounted it on some bright blue paper and with the green card-the color pops.

So even though it is still a few weeks until winter begins on the calendar, I guess this card is really right in season.

Short days, chilly temperatures, chances of snow flurries ahead...

Keep warm and cheery today readers!

Holiday cheer today

Here's something cheery and holiday-ish on this late November Tuesday. 

Do you feel like me, that it isn't very Christmasy for right after Thanksgiving? Must be the fact that turkey day came so early this year and December doesn't even start until the end of the week.

Here's instructions for my card.

I embossed the frame (Sizzix) with this new stamping/embossing set I picked up earlier this fall. I actually used white pigment ink on the folder so when it embossed the frame stayed green and the card got this white grungy look. Then I took some green Twinkling H2O's and painted the frame-though you miss the sparkle here.

Inside the frame I punched a circle on silver sparkley paper and I also die cut the snowflake (Cheery Lynn). I went onto the card and added some red Viva paint pen dots and some red Stickles to the bow on the embossed frame.

Then I added the snowman-(Paper Smooches) and the words are from Technique Tuesday/Allie Edwards.

Here's a close up.

Not much else new to report today

so have a great Tuesday and

thanks for visiting my blog.

Weekend Wrap Up=No Art Today

Hi there everyone. Hope you all had a great weekend-and if you celebrate Thanksgiving- I hope you had a great long holiday weekend.

I did, and man, it is hard to think about having 4  five-day work weeks ahead until my Christmas/New Years vacation. This morning it seems especially hard, you know, Monday after a 5 day weekend. That makes the weekend a vacation-really, if you think about it.

So here's how I spent my weekend-

Saw the last Twilight movie, got my holiday journal prepared and made Thanksgiving foods.

Traveled to my mom's for the holiday.

Here's my family-

What a photo. My husband looks plain wacky and my daughter looks possessed.

The rest of the crowd at my mom's house.

At least my daughter doesn't look this she has a devil in her.

Went Black Friday shopping with the hubby (later in the day, not in the morning or Thanksgiving night)-got a few things for the holiday and went out to lunch, went to my favorite craft store  (get a coupon to use in January for 50% of your purchase), had Chinese food which I have been hankering for a long time, went to this great Italian place in Manchester Saturday night before the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert.

Have you seen TSO? They put on a great holiday rock n'roll show.

The first half of the show is a rock opera with a Christmas theme and then they just perform some of their songs.

Or their versions of Christmas music.

I also roasted a turkey for us to have at home and did some knitting and put together a Shutterfly photo book.

Did a bit of cleaning-not too much- and slept in and it was just a great all around weekend.

But of course, not long enough-

weekends never are.

No, I am not complaining,

just saying that-

since I am really blessed to have such a rich, fun and full weekend.

I give lots of thanks for that.

Hope you did too.

Back tomorrow with some arty stuff for you.

Have a great Monday.

10 Things Friday

Hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a great holiday and didn't eat too many pieces of pie.

Due to the holiday yesterday and today being a shopping day-and not sure if I will be heading out to look for Black Friday deals-or NOT (I know you won't be seeing me out at 5 am or before that) - I am pre-posting this week's 10 things Friday. I thought it might be a good time to look at 10 books I want to read. And hope to read .

Here we go!

1-

Not really a reading book, but I read cookbooks all the time. I'm hoping Santa gives me this one for Christmas because when I looked at this book at Barnes and Nobel, it looked pretty good.

2-

I've mentioned wanting to read this book before. I love Kaffe Fasset. He is one awesome designer. I bet he has had a fascinating life, and if I ever get to read this, I guess I will know, eh?

3.

This book sounds like an interesting read, and I loved the Cathedral series. (Although I must admit I  kind of skim read a big chunk of the cathedral book 2- I didn't like it as much as book 1.) Sometimes his books are a bit formula, but there are times formula books is all your brain wants to deal with.

4.

I have this book but I still need to read it. It is sitting next to my bedside table. Hopefully pretty soon I will get around to reading it.

5.

I have been saying I want to reread this book for quite some time. I even dug out my ragged old copy. I read this many many years ago and I loved it when I did, and I figured it is just about time to give it another read to see if I still like it just as much.

(Let's see if it shows up next time I do a 10 books I want to read list.)

6.

Here's another book I have wanted to read for quite awhile and it has been in my list about that long too.

7.

Has anyone got a review of this book? It keeps popping up on people's blogs, and when I looked at the previews it didn't look that appealing. But people are saying they like it. So I want to be in the know and read it.

8.

And I can't wait for this book to be released in January. I took a class with Dina and it was great. She has a really cool style-right up my alley, and I can't wait to see what else I can learn from her in this book.

9.

I don't know much about this book, but it looks interesting. Has anyone read it? Sometimes books are good but they just don't fit you and your life at that particular point.  The Happiness Project was a book like that for me. She has a new book out, Happiness at Home, and I am also interested in that book too.

10.


And this is my last book today. I love ethnic knitting. I love heirloom knitting. I've looked at this book about 10 times on trips to Barnes and Nobel's over the last several months. One of these days I may buy it.
It is a good book, and for those of us with Swedish heritage, it is a great way to connect with history, our past and some cool knitting.

So we had a lovely Thanksgiving with my family yesterday. My sister-in-law is fighting stage 4 breast cancer so who knows how things will be next year- since she has a pretty aggressive tumor and the chemo isn't so good right now.
It is very sad. She's only 49 but she is a fighter.
Had a great day off on Wednesday. Went to see the final Twilight movie with Katie-Breaking New Dawn and enjoyed it. Then spent a whole afternoon in the studio- we went to a 10:40 movie- and made an apple pie and a sweet potato casserole that night too.
Was excellent having that day off-something I haven't had before so that made it really special.

So if you are out shopping- have fun and hope you find some good deals.
And if not, hope you get to be doing something fun where ever you may be.
Enjoy your Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving

From the archives, some fun Thanksgiving cards!

Pre-posting this as I am off to visit my family in Massachusetts today.

Top card- images from Hero Arts and Crafty Secrets.

Images from Impression Obsession and Hero Arts.

Image from Hero Arts and die cuts/embossing  from Sizzix.

Have a fabulous holiday if you celebrate!

And try not to eat too much.

Some fun journaling

Here's a snippet of a journal page that I recently made. I started by using gesso and then painting the page with some pink acrylic paint. I used a circle foam stamp and soaked up some of the paint to leave a reverse dot image on the page's background. You can see that on the far right side of this photo.  Finally I used my favorite stencil from Crafter's Workshop-Circle Explosion- and some blue acrylic paint to finish my background.

I then stamped the ring image and drew the flowers in white, then added paint to color those flowers. Finally I stamped the lady-she is an Impression Obsession stamp.

I dressed one of those ladies up with some German gold foil-added the quote (Dylusions/Stamper's Anonymous) and my own little addition.

So I am going to see the new Twilight with my daughter today, and I need to make an apple pie for tomorrow. I am very excited to have a down day today-my first time ever having this day off from school. YEAH! Hopefully, a little studio time, sleep in time, whatever other fun things I can do to start off holiday my weekend. 

Thanks for visiting!

A Last Taste of Fall

Christmas will rule supreme in just a few days, and I know I've showed you a few holiday cards already, but today I want to show you this fall-ish card I made. (Or part of this card- it is a square card) I used this Caribbean blue card stock  and some blue and white striped paper.  Copic colored images are from Tim Holtz/Stamper's Anonymous. Words are a saying from Dylusions/Stamper's Anonymous. And add to that a bit of Dylusions spray ink, and you have this card.

I like it.

So yawn, I'm tired after last night, but our Battle of the Classes went well school- but I ended up having a 15 hour day-YAWN!- and now it it is a wind down day. Got to  pick up Miss Katie at college tonight, and in several hours my long weekend begins.

Oh YES!

Have a super day.

Holiday Week Chatter

I love this holiday week. It is a short working week, a good holiday since there is lots of yummy food, good shopping deals and usually low stress good family time. I say usually since we are going to my family on Thursday for the holiday and you just never know with my family, but I am just not thinking about that.  Sometimes if you think you too much you get stressed and make it all worse.

But I really like Thanksgiving.

And it will be good to see my family.

(Though I am secretly jealous of people who get a love key holiday without all the family hub-bub).

And I only have to work 2 days this week, and I have some fun things planned for the long holiday weekend.

More about that later.

Yesterday I went to visit some friend's of my husband's family who were visiting from San Francisco. Katie and Bob are charming lovely people and I'm glad I got to go visit them while they are here in the east. We stayed for dinner and sat on the couches and watched the guys put down my mother-in-laws new floor.

Hey I am reading a new book too-

Just started it but Julia Child is such a fascinating woman. I've read a few books about her in the past, and I have loved them all. What a great life she had.

Will let you know more about this book when I get further into the book.

So last thing for today is this fun card I made.  I started with this new Darcy's embossing folder I just bought a couple of weeks ago. I inked the folder and then embossed on white paper to get this cool blue sky background between the trees. I mounted this on white cardstock and outlined with a blacked Sharpie.

Then I added the moose and cardinal (silly bird). I put a Santa hat on the moos with some silver glitter. These are stamps from when Kim Hughes designed for Cornish Heritage Farms. Not sure she has re-released these images from her own company Paper Smooches.

The words are from a Technique Tuesday release.

The set it is from is called the Magic of Christmas by Allie Edwards.

So tonight I have a late night at school since National Honor Society (which I am one of the advisers) is putting on our annual Battle of Classes fundraiser. Will be tired tomorrow, but it is for a good cause and I am happy to get it coordinated and (hopefully) pulled off successfully.

Hope you have a great Monday!

Stop back soon.

Angels

I love this quote. You know that only an artist would "see" angels in raw stone. This is a stamped image from Stamp in the Hand. 

Here's my journal page in which I used this quote.

This is a cool angel image from Postmodern Design. I colored her (or him, because it looks more like a him I think) with Copics, a gold pen, and also some Sparkling H2O watercolors.  I used some gold spray Perfect Pearls on this page, and then used a wet brush to wipe away the spray within the frame. I like the slightly glowing effect here.

I seem to use angels a lot in my art work when it gets around Christmas. Not so much the rest of the year.

The frame in this above journal page is from another angel stamp by Postmodern Design. I used her in this journal page.

Instead of her crosshatch frame (see above journal page) I used some red line tape and some gold glitter to surround this lady. Before that I rubbed the lady with some Viva gold paint rub and colored her with some Copics.

Here's a bigger view of the page. I added some silver ink to make the little X on the page and a cloth butterfly which I added some gold and silver ink onto the blue cloth. I like the effect of the blue and silver background- not too complex but just enough details.

So last night I got to see SkyFall, the new James Bond movie. It was fabulous-really enjoyed it. It is not only a good story but a well written story.

I think Wednesday when I am off Katie and I are going to see the last installment of Twilight and I really want to see Abraham Lincoln too.

After a very poor movie year there is suddenly so many good ones coming out.

Yesterday I did a bunch of decluttering. Working on reorganizing a part of my studio I haven't yet got to but that needed to be cleaned in the worst way.

Glad to get it started!

 I want to finish cleaning up my studio but if it means no creative time, I might let it go until I am off Wednesday.

So enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Big Holiday week coming up

How about a Christmas Card?

Here's a fun card I made last weekend. It didn't start out like this; it started off as a full front designed card with snow on the ground and a snowman and  full sized trees and all these snowflakes falling down.

Busy, busy, busy.

So I used a die cut and cut out this bird and tops of these trees, because I really liked this part of the card. It always amazes me how you can dislike a card and then cut an inchie square from some spot on the card and really like the results. It is a great way to dump all the clutter you can otherwise end up with.Then I die cut a bit bigger square out of some glittery lighter blue paper and did a small amount of layering. 

I did add a bit of green Viva paint pen to the evergreen tree here, and I mixed that paint with some white sparklely Stickles-I added the same Stickles to the bare tree too-since it is snowing they needed some fresh snow on them.

The bird, trees and snowflakes are all from an old set I have from Cornish Heritage Farm and Kim Hughes. She has just re-released this set in her Kimset Collection at Paper Smooches called Winter Groves.  This birdie is also in the set but I cut off the little feather cowlick sticking off the birdie's head.

Finally I used some silver sparkley paper and die cut the joy word-using a Sizzix die. I just love this joy word. I love the retro feel and the shape of the letters. I used it a lot last year on holiday cards and I have a feeling this year it will get a lot of use too.

So yesterday I was on my way with my friend Vicky to the Peabody Essex Museum to go see a traveling hat exhibit. On our way we passed the North Shore Mall in Peabody, MA, and guess what? We ended up stopping at the mall and shopping and NEVER made it to the museum!!!! It was such a blast! Although I did spend a bit too much cash on myself at Chico's. Was ok though-and a lot of fun. We also went to the container store and I got a few little holiday gifts for my family. And being out with my friend we laughed and chatted and talked and chatted and laughed some more.

It was a great way to start off my weekend.

So I am still hoping to go see the James Bond movie tonight-

there's also that new Abraham Lincoln movie I want to see too.

Katie wants me to go with her to see the final Twilight movie Wednesday when she is done with classes. I want to see what they do as their twist from the book. Are you a Twilight fan? I really didn't care for the books, but the movies are ok. But if I can go with my daughter, that is what I like.

So have you seen any movies lately? Gone on any fun shopping trips? 

A couple of challenges

I am posting this card for a couple of challenges. One of them is going on at Paper Smooches and the other one is Blogger's Challenge.

And since next week is Thanksgiving, my bird is this silly turkey from Paper Smooches.

This silly guy is from the Jive Turkey set of stamps.

The saying is from a set from Stamper's Anonymous and Dyan Reavely.

On the inside, instead of finishing the saying, I added a little note how a turkey's life without dreams would let them end up as someone's Thanksgiving dinner.

HA-HA-HA!

This card was for my daughter in college and she got a kick out of it.

This photograph some how ended up being a bit faded out -the pink especially a bit washed out.

here's a close up that came out a lot better.

I mounted Mr. Tom Turkey on the inside of this frame that I die cut (Sizzix) and then inked the inside and doodled some white dots onto the outer frame.

The proper place for this silly guy.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

10 Things Friday

Since, Thanksgiving is next week  I am going to celebrate and do a 10 things I am Thankful for on this 10 things Friday.

1-For the good loving people in my life- my hubby Dave, my daughter Katie, my mom, my brother, my friends and co-workers....

2-For having a great home and a yard and the fantastic quality of life I have. I have support and a calm environment to live in. I am lucky to have a home in place I want to live, and I love the state and town and area I live in.

3- I love the fact that I can be the strong willed free thinking pretty self sufficient woman  

4- For living into my 50's so far and for the widsom and peace you find when you get there. You know who you are and I have found a sense of peace in that. I have also found a sense of confidence knowing who I am too, and how at this age you lose the sense of having to keep up with people or have to be someone you are not.

5-For my puppy Harley and my 2 kitties -Emma and Leo. They are loving and sweet and smart and mostly, those 2 boys make me LAUGH-like my hubby too.

6-For finding my art talent and having this great studio in which to create and my little successes-with art I discovered who I was and it gave me confidence and cured my pains. That I am  lucky enough to my have my own studio area...though small and crowded it is MY space and my family supports me doing my art and having my space...

7-For being a happy person...not a perfect person and not having a perfect life...but I am happy with life and with being me. It must be hard for people who aren't happy and who can't see how good life is or who have such bad things in their lives they have major mountains to over come.

8-For having the opportunities to travel and see some places I have spent most of my life just dreaming about.

9-That I am healthy and that so far I haven't had any major illness or issues to put the breaks on my life.

10-For being a curious wanting to learn to and to experience new things kind of person. For feeling young and I think looking pretty good for 52. For having a sure why not kind of attitude and for being stubborn so when someone tells me I can't do something I figure it out and go for it. For being someone who can laugh at themselves and who doesn't take life too seriously. For someone who has had some luck in life and who hasn't been stupidly blinded by too much alcohol and drugs or other things that can get in the way of life.

I know that winter does end and spring does come. I know that things do change, that they can get worse, so love the good when you have it. Be thankful for it. I realize that this doesn't last forever, and however sad that is you got to love the moment you are in. I know that though work can drive me crazy right now, it might get better or worse but I have a job and it is not all that bad. Most of it all is mental, it is how you face it all and take it all.

 I am very blessed, I am very lucky and I have so much in my life that naming 10 things just can't do it.

I really like the cool tree shadows in this photo. I was actually part of a bigger photo that I took of my daughter, but I cropped these out because they are a great photo on their own.

This weekend I am going to watch the yard if I am home and if we have sun and see if I can get a few more shots of these shadows.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Down By the Sea

It is now officially the mid-point of November.

That cannot be true.

Can it?

I really want to go see the new 007 Bond movie this weekend. Skyfall. Daniel Craig is such a hottie.

Maybe I can talk Dave into going on Saturday.

Have you seen it? If so, is it as good as the critics say it is?

Let's see what this weekend brings.
I can't believe that in another week we will be entering the 2012 Holiday season.
That cannot be true either.
Can it?
So I am hoping my cold doesn't wipe me out today since tonight I am going to see the school musical-Tommy-with a couple of teacher's I work with. I danced to that back when I was high school-my school had a dance club that I was on and that was our show too-
eons ago.
The more things change the more they stay the same,
isn't that the cliche?

So now for some new art from me.

Here's another snippet or 2 from my journal. I was feeling kind of oceany here, and really wanted to play with these Stampotique images.

So I painted some waves in a couple of shades of blue. And I painted the edge of an empty 7Gyspies tape role and used it as a stamp. I also added some clear Viva paintpen dots as air bubbles coming out of the octopi.

Images are stamped on white paper and then painted with watercolors.

Koi tube paints-got to LOVE LOVE LOVE the bright colors you get along with some awesome blending.

I added white Stickles to the mermaids hair and used some on the tail fins too. 

I also used some blue Dylusions spray ink and held the page upright so the ink would run down the page.

I cut the seaweed from scrap paper and the words are a Rubbermoon image.

Another journal design I like the results.

Have you made any journal pages or other art you really like lately?

I'd love to see them if you have.

Happy Thursday.

Revisiting

Can you believe it is already Wednesday?

I have so much to do at work this week my days are flying by.

As is this month.

So thought I would show you a journal page that I put up a few weeks ago but have revisited and made some finishing details on it.

Here's what I showed you awhile back.

Here's the original posting.

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/11/art-journal-every-day-two-new-tape-bound-junque-journals.html

Needs something to give it some more depth, I thought.

So I started by adding more yellow and orange with a make-up sponge to really make it look like autumn.

And some brighter blue for the sky. But it needed some depth, so I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil. You can really see that below.

The sun- which is in a Postmodern Design stamp, that I cut out and colored and embossed the rays with gold embossing powder.

And the clouds needed some more white gesso to be white.

And as I added the yellow and orange to the trees, I took the bottom of the brush and carved in some branch lines into the wet paint.

What a difference from the top photo. I like it so much more now.

That's the beauty of a journal-you don't have to just do a page for a day. You can go back to a page as many times as it calls you and keep adding to it until you finish your page in a way that it makes you happy.

This page makes me happy right now.

I am linking this to this page:

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/11/art-journal-every-day-two-new-tape-bound-junque-journals.html

Stay warm.

Stay in the sunshine.

Enjoy your day .

Disappointed Pets

I already know I am going to have 2 disappointed critters today since it is back to work after a 3 day weekend. Those boys of mine, I'll tell you. Good thing I have 1 kitty who isn't as needy as those boys.

This is a page about Harley, my 12 year old puppy. The stamped (Impression Obsession) quote is his philosophy of life.

I made this page with a couple of Gelli prints I printed. I also used an embossed piece of card stock, some Viva paint pen dots, some paper tape and a couple of Stampotique stamped hanging hearts.

So I ordered my first Shutterfly book this morning-curious to see how it will look once printed.

Got to run, back to work, but a short week ahead.

Have a great day!

Love a Lazy Monday

Love a non-working Monday.

Love being able to sleep in and putter around in the morning.

You know, have a cup or 2 of tea, go into the studio, do a chore or 2.

Take a walk on this warm-ish November day.

Very nice indeed.

And since I am having such a nice morning I will

Thank all the veterans which is why I am home today.

So I am back into the right season today with a another card I made for Katie at college.

This one isn't quite so silly as the 3 I showed you yesterday.

The image is a stamp from Cornish Heritage Farm that I particularly like. I colored it with Copics and used a Sizzix Frame-lit to cut it out. I mounted it on yellow paper and then onto the card itself. I outlined the image with another Copic just for a bit more depth. The diamond/harlequin pattern is some 7Gyspies Gaffer tape. Then I added some leaves which I cut from a Spellbinder's die and also colored.

I do need to get busy this morning and take a few photos of some recent journaling and some fancy- smancy holiday cards I made yesterday. 

I also need to finish my raking-which I started yesterday-before we get a foot of snow or  it gets brutally cold again-like last week.

I also need to bring Katie back to school today.       

So it won't be quite so a lazy a Monday as I had hoped...

but all that work I am saving for later.

Once I have had my spell of laziness.

There's always things to do and you have to make time to do nothing.

Don't you agree?

Anyhow-

have a superb Monday

and come back soon.          

Put a W in the results column

Yeah- it was very exciting at the hockey game last night- FINALLY Maine won a game in hockey east and beat Lowell-4-3. Our good old Black Bears were back and unlike the last 2 games, was a really good game to watch and get excited about. (Might be why my voice is a bit horse this morning....)

We don't have any more tickets for a month until they play Boston University in early December, but we're hoping in the 3 games they have until that they will continue to improve.

Or win!

OK, got that off my chest.

Now I can move onto something that might interest you more.

Silly cards. I made these for my college daughter back for Halloween- and I know

I am going to be totally out of the season,

Halloween seems like a long time ago to me,

but let me show these to you.

(I asked this question because my daughter, being a college student, is still taking tests.)

I like the card- stamps are from Paper Smooches (Spookalicious and He Said/She Said). I added some Viva Paint pen in red for the dripping blood off the fangs. The moon is a die-cut circle (Sizzix Framelits circle set) which is sprayed with Dylusion's yellow in and distress just a tad.

HA-HA-HA!

And then for the next silly card for the college kid:

I made the brick background using a Crafter's Worshop stencil, red, yellow, orange and brown acrylic paint and a deli wrap, and then I used black paint and the old receipt Crafter's Workshop stencil over the bricks. Some Paper Smooches stamps, same Viva Paint pen red for the blood, and then some old black sticky trim I had (I have no idea who made this).

The answer to the silly joke question

Ok, so I will never make it as a comedian, but here's one more for you to roll your eyes at.

I know, these ghosts don't have hair-

though I thought about adding some in.

This time I used the same Paper Smooches sets, and plain black background paper. I added some silver Stickles to look like stars-since ghosts do come out at night, right?

And for the answer this time-

Hope you had a little tiny laugh from these,

enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I Love Long Weekends

I love long weekends, especially ones that seem to have a nice mix of fun and down time. And the way the calendar falls this year-this month is full of chopped up weekends. This weekend is Veteran's Day. Next weekend I am taking Friday off to go museum visiting with my friend Vicky, and then we're into Thanksgiving Weekend.

Got to love that. Not only does it give you a break but you feel so much fresher at work seeing you're more rested.

So today I am off to Costco to do some stocking up and then we're going to another Maine hockey game in Lowell, Massachusetts. Hopefully, they'll play better than they have been. Lowell is 9th hockey east right now and Maine is 10th, neither team had won before Lowell beat Maine last night so maybe...just maybe...we can win.

We'll see!

So here's a page from my summer scrap journal for you that I like. The colors are bright and cheery and very Katie. The photo is her and her dad. I love the colors of the leaves-it is paper from October Afternoon's Halloween collection.  The flowers all over the page are from Stampington. One of my most favorite stamps of all time.

That's it for today.

Thanks for taking a minute out of your day to visit and

please come back soon.