Wedding Card

A little pre-posted post for you today since I am still in New Mexico. Missing the folks and the critters at home, but having a blast. Didn't bring my computer with me so you'll have to wait until I return to see some views from my trip.

Here's a card I made for a co-worker's wedding which is happening today down in Florida.  I couple of my lilac Viva paint-pen dots got a bit mushy, but overall I like this card. Traditional with a bit of unusual green.

All images are from Kim Hughes when she made stamps for Cornish Heritage Farm.

I started by embossing in a bright green the leafy branches on the background. Then I die cut the green circles (Life Style Crafts/Quickutz) and the white circle from Sizzix. I layered these and then I stamped and embossed the phrase. I stamped the couple in black on glossy card stock and trimmed them.

So hope you're having a great week.

Thanks for stopping by!

I've Arrived

Just in case you were wondering.

I am really on vacation!

Snow is Coming

Another good sized storm is due to arrive tonight...through noon-ish tomorrow.

Maybe up to a foot of snow!

And there looks like we'll have a lot of snow next week-

Glad I am heading out of town to miss all that!

Of course, I had my flight booked to New Mexico at 9:30 tomorrow-with a tight connection in Baltimore.

Well I changed that and I am flying today. Heading out of Dodge early. What a disaster trying to do that though. But I did manage to change my flight- between the storm and a lot of New Hampshire schools on vacation-flights were really booked. But I am off this afternoon.

Won't be back until next weekend.

I am prepared.

And I am excited.

So this card today-

The polar bear is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I stamped it twice, once on watercolor paper- which I cut and used watercolors to paint. I also added some Stickles. Then I cut the polar out of the second stamped image on white paper and used some foam dots to attach them so they pop off the page.

Here's the whole card.

I mounted the card on black and then on white card stock, which I gave a quick spray with some Dylusion's spray ink.

This card fits the on coming weather.

I am so sick of winter. 

Are you?

Not sure if I'll be posting while traveling but will have lots to share when I get back.

See you soon.

And thanks for stopping by- I appreciate your visits.

10 Things Friday

Today, since my mind is really on wrapping up school , packing and getting ready for my trip (and also all the little details that come with traveling like the impending snow that they say will come), thought I would take stock and show you 10 Blogs that I
often stop by. I don't follow all of these, but I like these blogs as of late.

1-Julie Fei-Fan Balzar's blog.

Balzar's Designs

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/

I really like her fun colorful style a lot, and I think she has a really interesting life teaching, making art and living in NYC.

I also took a class with her last summer and she is a great teacher!

2-Dispatch from LA

Written by Mary Ann Moss

http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/

I love her dry slightly sarcastic style.

I love traveling with her to far away  and not so far away lands. She also takes great shots of flowers and just life in general.

3-Tall Tales from Kansas
Written by Mary Ann Moss's sister Carol.
I don't know what her last name is.
But she is as witty as her sister. And she has great snippets into her every day life,
which I something I really enjoy.
Here is her link.
http://talltalesfromkansas.typepad.com/

4-Getting Stitched on the Farm
http://getting-stitched-on-the-farm.blogspot.com/
This is Kristen Nichol's blog. She is a knitting designer. I love her sense of color. I love reading about farm life in Western Massachusetts.
Even though I never lived on a sheep farm I grew up in Central Massachusetts and there is something comforting and familiar about her life.
She also has an amazing sense of color and her I adore when she does house tours on her blog.

5-How about some fantastic nature photography?
http://www.my-photo-blog.com/
Niebrugge Photograhy
Lately he's been showing photos from a trip to Antartica.
Very cool

6-Suzz's Stamping Spot
She makes some pretty nice cards.
http://suzzstampingspot.blogspot.com/

7-
One of my new finds.
The Gentleman Crafter-
A very Talented Texan.
http://thegentlemancrafter.blogspot.co.uk/

8-
Another photography blog.
http://brattleborobrief.blogspot.com/
Bratcat
photographs of Brattleboro, Vermont

9-My Life in Collage
http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.com/
Fun colors, cool layouts, lots of products

10-For some yummy recipes I go to
Whisk Kid
http://www.whisk-kid.com/
She has some great recipes and a a great page. Her
food photos are super too.

Now I check out a lot of blogs-these are just a few I have been liking.
I also love to check out Tim Holtz, Dina Wakely, Jenni Bowlin- along with some other BIG names. You probably already check them out.
Also check out My Messy Life, Paul Murray, Green Frog Studio, Anita Houston, October Afternoon, Harvest Moon, Judy Wise, A Colorful Journey, A Penny for your Thoughts (Penny, where have you been?) and Bangor Daily Photos.
And a bunch other blogs.
The reality is there is so many good ones out there!
I will one day do another post with a few other of my favorites.
If you're like me, you kind of go through  phases of how much you look at blogs and what blogs tickle your fancy. Being winter, dark and cold, I think I have been reading blogs a lot lately, probably too much.
That's all for today.
Happy Friday and thanks for visiting.

a little inspiration for Thursday

A little perky card for Thursday.

A pretty simple card. Pink card stock background and some paper tape that I put on by ripping lots of little strips. I then die cut a frame using 2 Nestability dies by Spellbinders. I glued that down it it covered over the tape edges.
The saying is from Dylusions stamps. I stamped it and cut it out.
The little bird is from Paper Smooches. I colored and cut this cute little guy out and added him to card.
BUSY day ahead.
Parent open house at school tonight which means I won't be home until late-like 9. UGH! But luckily tomorrow is Friday and then it is vacation!
Lots of kids will be out tomorrow- I am sure. Some people are leaving early-lucky them!
Saying a BIG snowstorm is coming in Sunday when I am suppose to fly. Trying to decide if I should fly early or fly a day later. Figures!
Oh may- it is always something.
One day I will learn and just hang home over February break.
Such BIG issues in my life-eh? HA-HA!
Have a super day!

Mr. Handsome

Mr. Handsome poised for a modeling session the other afternoon.

"Oh what's that moving over there?" The something catching his eye outside look.

The pretending not to care look.

Looks say more than words. Here he is putting on his go away face.

The getting sleepy cat look.With a little bit of aggravation because I am still there clicking away.

The please leave me alone I am getting annoyed look. The not so happy but more ready to fall back to sleep look.

I figured he sat through several clicks of my camera shutter so I gave him his wish, I left him alone.

Modeling session over.

SO

I went and checked out my new book that arrived in the mail.

I am looking for some secrets about travel sketchbooks.

Not that I have mastered travel sketchbooks. 

It is one of those things I think about doing and would like to do and one of these days will do.

Just doesn't seem to be a lot of sitting time when I travel.

At least not out and about to sketch.

But I aspire to travel sketching and know that one of these days I will do some type of sketching on my journeys.

For now I will admire other people's work, read what they have to say, and do my own travel journals.

Mine is all ready for next week.

I know I showed you a while back but here's a few more views.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

Pink

I mentioned a few weeks back how my sister-in-law was having some major surgery to help fight her breast cancer. She is doing well, home from the hospital and in for a long healing time. I think they're saying she has another 6-8 weeks before she'll be back to work and her pre-surgery life. But all that really matters if that she is recouping and doing well right now.

Here's a card I made for her this past weekend.

Pink for breast cancer of course!

I started by painting some white circles on my pink card. Then I used the same pink card stock to die cut the  center. I attached it and outlined the die cut with black Sharpie.

I die cut the banner (new Paper Smooches die) and stamped it with the matching Paper Smooches stamp. The boxing gloves, the pink ribbon and the saying are all from Paper Smooches too.

I added some pink Stickles to the ribbon.

The set I used for the Breast Cancer images is called Hope.

Hoping today we don't get a lot of snow (another storm is coming in) and that this wicked cold wind stops blowing. All I did last night was curl up on the couch under a blanket...was a crazy Monday at work and with the cold, just couldn't get motivated to go up into the studio.

But tonight the hubby has a late meeting so I am planning a play marathon.

Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by.

President's Day

I don't have this holiday off- actually no one in my house does. Even University of New Hampshire where Katie is has school.

That's OK, am really counting down to my vacation. 

Hope I don't spend this vacation sick as I was over my last vacation at Christmas. That was one where I really didn't get a vacation to recharge, and this one I am really planning on recharging.

But I won't bore you with that.

So back to some art.

This is kind of a weird journal page...not my usual style. Guess when I made it a couple of weeks ago I was in a weird place.

Actually I take that back.

Not a weird place but experimental place.

I was actually trying out this stamp I won on eBay a zillion years ago but hadn't used. Sometimes journal pages just aren't pretty.

I added the tape and I like it better with the tape but I am not sure the tape really does much for the page.

I ended up water coloring the whole page in pink

 because it was too boring in white.

I think this frog is funny though.

I used him in a card which I posted last Friday for Blogger's Challenge.

Here it is again.

Just in case you are curious or maybe missed the post or wondered why I was playing with this stamp in my journal.

So yesterday was a snowy day at my house, but since I cleaned all day Saturday I made yesterday a big studio day.

LOVE it!

Snowy day playing with stamps, markers and paint.

Oh baby.

Today, well back to reality.

Have a super day and thanks for stopping by.

One Week

Five more days of school until vacation. One week from now I will be on a Southwest Plane flying to New Mexico. 

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Greetings-from-Taos-New-Mexico-Posters_i5065849_.htm

My friend Vicky sent me a rough itinerary. Here's a few places she suggested we spend some time at.

http://www.rangerdoug.com/bandelier-national-monument

This would be really cool since Vicky is an archaeologist and knows all kinds of things she can tell me about.

A girls spa day. Oh my, how delicious sounding.

And  2 girls shopping adventure(s)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edgebrook/4167089699/

Maybe not this particular place, but I borrow this photo since I love the shop southwest across the top.

(and I checked out edgebrook's  Flicker photos and there are some super ones)

A visit to Santa Fe

http://www.greattowns.com/newmexico/santafe/index.html

and a few other things.

Who knows what we will discover?

Thanks for stopping by!

What's on the Docket

Today I am making chili since tonight my sister-in-law and brother-in-law are coming for dinner and to watch a hockey game on tv. They are bringing the beer-home brew my brother-in-law makes. Its good too. We call it Burnt Foot Beer since he scalded his foot making a batch a while back.
I hope tonight's game is as good as last night's game. We are playing Boston University again. Last night we should have won 4-3 but they disallowed a goal so it ended tied 3-3. Even the NBC sports commentators said that "Maine dominated the game and should have won. It was the worst call in Hockey East."
Nice to hear that the way Maine has been playing so far this year-  a few unbelievable good games (last night for 1) and several BAD games.

Not sure how much studio time I will get but think I can squeeze in a little bit.

A couple of weekends ago I took a couple of hours and sat down and painted some deli-wrap to use in different art projects. I used some acrylic paint and just added some random designs.

Later on I can cut them up or use them as backgrounds.

Here's the deli wrap I paint. I learned about this from Julie Fei-Fan Balzar when I took a class with her last summer.

I am hooked on this Liquitex acrylics you can buy at Michael's. Especially when they have them on sale at 3 for $10. Not a bad deal for some decent paint.

I did buy some new Tim Holtz Distress paints. I must say I LOVE them too.

The colors are bold and bright and they cover really well. They aren't shiny like the Liquitex but they have a neat flat finish.

I really love them too.

They are some good base backgrounds and wait til they are on the page and you spray them with some ink...

Been playing with these sheets already, will show you some other day.

Have a great Saturday!

Blogger's Challenge

So this week's Blogger's Challenge is Cut it Out. So I did that by first die cutting the background and the bubblely frame for that. Both of those are Memory Box dies. The background die cut was done on plain white paper and then I colored it using box Dylusions spray ink and and some green ink on a Hero Arts polka dot stamp. 

The froggie is an image from Rubber Moon. He was stamped twice, once directly on the card and then once on white paper. I colored the one on the white paper and cut it out. When I did this I cut off the head. (Sounds gruesome!) I did that so I could glue the body flat and then use a foam pop up stickie so the head would be a bit higher than the rest of the body. I attached all of these into the uncolored stamped image directly on the card.

The flowers are also a Memory Box die- only I trimmed away a few flowers and added those after using some Distress stain to color them.

I trimmed down the outside of the card to mimic the shape of my background cut out. Then I added some Viva paint pen dots on the bubblely frame and also on the center of the flowers. Finally I added the little Hero Arts hello stamp.

Here's the die cuts I used.

And a close up of Mr. Froggy.!

Thanks for visiting!

10 Things Friday

Or this weeks list- better titled

A Little of This and a Little of That

1) I leave next weekend for my mini-trip to Taos. Can't wait and the excitement is building.

But I want to finish up a few things before I leave, since this break is kind of a change over time.

You know Memorial Day starts summer and Labor Day ends summer, even though in both cases summer is not really ending or beginning. February break is that same kind of thing for me, the end of the winter drudgery and not really the start of spring but the wind down of winter. Fresh beginnings... so to speak.

2) I need to finish up my holiday journal. I am almost there. Just a few more photos. Need to get it done because the holidays are long gone and that spirit is not in me any more. I should have been motivated to do this earlier on, but  alas, I wasn't. And now the push is on.

3) I also have 2 books I am reading that I need to finish-Gone Girl and also book 2 in the Diane Fallon murder mystery series. That was there I can bring a fresh book with me on my travels.
4) Put down my bedroom rugs that I picked up at IKEA a couple of weeks ago. Not a huge job, just something that needs to be done. They'd be down if I didn't need to vacuum first-but I hate carrying the vac upstairs unless I have time to clean the whole floor...otherwise it sits in the hall waiting for me to get it finished...
5) Get my driver's licence renewed. Needs to be done by right after I returned from New Mexico, so I need to stop by the registry and get it done.
6) Finish season 3 of Downton Abbey, since I won't be able to watch any episodes for a week.
7)Use the $20 coupon I got to my favorite craft store that expires on the 28th of this month.
8) But I did do the college Fafsa form for the daughter's college financial aid that needed to be finished by March 1, and I made the vet appointment for the dog since he needs a rabies vaccine by the end of March to get licensed. I do need to take care of a few other items such as those-but they aren't very fun things to do. Still, they feel great once you do get to cross them off your list!
9) I need to put the last few supplies in my mini art box for the trip and I need to find my little bag of paraphernalia and paper I want to pack too. Where in the messy world of my studio did I put it after last summer's vacation?   HMMMM!
10)Lastly, I need to contact my friend whom I am going to visit to find out what I need to pack. Been watching the temperature on my phone weather app, but need to know if I need anything dresser than jeans...do I need hiking boots...you know, what kind of clothes does her plans include.

So you ask why am I showing you these beautiful beach photos?

Dreaming of summer- yes...BUT not exactly why they're are here.

They do look nice though, don't they? Make me want some summer weather and the lazy days that come with it. Oh, I wish this weather was just a few days away.

Anyhow, I am digressing again.

We are thinking about going back to the Outer Banks this summer.

Thinking, but not sure about the whole thing.

I must say I really liked it there a lot.

Will update once we decide.

How about a few more photos from the summer of 2011.

Happy Friday!

Geeky Valentines

Time for my science nerd side to shine on through.

My intern found these today on this website

http://www.jacksofscience.com/art/bring-love-to-the-lab-with-a-science-valentine/

They're back from 2008 but there's a couple I really like.

Here's one I particularly like. If only my husband would enjoy this.

And maybe the best one...too bad Darwin wasn't born on the 14th instead of the 12th.

ha-ha!

That's all for this quick second post.

Hope your day has lots of love in it!