Whirlpool of Imagination

This ones for Dad

I've been so stuck on Mother's Day cards, that I thought I'd give equal time to Father's Day.

The car stamp is from Inkadinkado and the background, which I'm calling burlap for lack of another term, is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I'm telling you, I am really loving their backgrounds. I have been resisting another order but I think I'm giving in soon.

Kids are in the midst of spring colds today. This morning we had their first t-ball practice and boy, it did not go well. My two are really independent when it comes to trying new things and being out there and going for it. Today they both ended up sitting on my lap crying for the last half of practice. In all the activities that they have ever done, this has never happened. We got home and off to bed for naps for both of them. It helped a little but its early bedtime here tonight for some more sleep.

Worked all afternoon on craft fair items. I have most of the gift baskets finished and I came up with some more cute ideas for little gift card sets. Sometime next week I'll take photos. Its funny how I evolve each time I do a craft fair. Every set up is just slightly different, but better. I'm learning what looks good where and how to present things. I have yet more work to do so tomorrow I may be chained in the studio working. Off to get back to work.

Yet more for Mom

My moms card today actually has no stamping, which is pretty unusual for me. The sentiment is computer generated, background is patterned paper along with my prima flowers.

My newsletter went out today (finally) so now I'm back to concentrating on my craft fair. It starts May 1st and runs for a week. I still have a lot of work to do but I'm usually always pushing myself to do something extra right up until any fair I do. The good thing is that my stock never goes to waste. Even if I don't sell something, I can always use it myself. I can't tell you how many times I needed a last minute gift item and am able to just grab something out of my inventory. I'm kind of a last minute kind of gal when it comes to shopping, so this is perfect for me.

We're dealing with allergies here right now. I know I've heard before that toddlers cannot get allergies but I swear that Conor has them. He is affected whenever there is a change in weather. Poor guy is not himself, just a little off.  Alright, no more crafting for me right now. I'm off to lacrosse with the kids.

First attempt, not so good

This week at Splitcoast Stampers, the technique challenge was a colored pencil technique. I love the looks of the results but after my first try, I realize I need a bit more practice.

The image is stamped with white ink on black cardstock. Then you color over the image with the pencils. The flowers here are from Denami and the harlequin background is TAC.

I really like the look of soft colors against the black background so I'll have to try this a bit more. Some of the examples at SCS were beautiful so I'm willing to try again.

Got caught up in Idol last night so the newsletter will be out today. I've been composing it in my head this morning. I also got a slew of new unmounted stamps and spent part of last night cutting and mounting them. Can't wait to try them out!

Cold here yesterday but the sun is shining this morning so lets hope for a nice spring day.

Mothers Day - already?

I am really trying to get my April newsletter out in the next day or two and everything has been conspiring against me. Since the focus is May, I have been trying to create some cards for Mother's Day. It's been slow going but I have one (yes, only one) to show.

I rarely use yellow. This is the only time of year that I seem to pull out my yellows. I used saran wrap for the background. I love that for an easy quick color background. The stamps are from Denami (flowers) and CTMH (words). I'm putting it as my goal to try to finish creating the items so I can put together the newsletter tomorrow night. I have some babysitting help tomorrow afternoon so there should be NO excuses.

On another note, Conor had his school pictures today. I'm looking at him this morning, trying to decide what to dress him in when I realize, his face has this HUGE scratch right by the mouth. He got it this weekend (his sister) and it is still there. I'm really bummed but the photographer does use digital so can you say photoshop anyone?? How in the world did we get by without manipulating our photos. Well, all I need to do is look back at my old school photos to realize we were just stuck with what we got - and that was NOT always good. LOL 

And just to make these photos real good......I looked at Meg tonight (who has her photos tomorrow) and she's got a pimple right smack in the middle of her chin. She's 4 - school photos should not be marred by pimples at this age. Ah well, back to the photoshop answer.....

More Wedding Cards

Yesteday was the bridal shower for my soon to be sister in law. Poured rain all day but on the bright side, Meg was a perfect angel there. She couldn't have been any better behaved. Since my mom had gifts in several boxes I had to make more cards for her to give. Here are two more:

This set is I believe from SU and the ink is Vineyard Berry from CTMH.

The dress is from Inkadinkado (Dawn Hauser collection) and the sentiment is SU. I used the chalk ink on this.

Wedding Season

You know that I've been asked (read, given some guilt about) addressing my brothers wedding invites. This weekend is the shower and I worked up a quick card. Her colors are a lilac which is why that color scheme but I really like the light purple with the lace background.

Although this could also be used for their wedding. Maybe I'll play around some more before Sunday. Anyway, stamps credits: stampin up (cake), jody posey (congrats), cornish heritage farms (lace background), and magenta (texture). The lace background is actually versamarked and visible IRL, not sure about on the scan. I have to say that I'm really impressed with Cornish Heritage Farms. They have some great stamps and wonderful backgrounds. And if you like unmounteds, the price is fantastic. Service is quick and done well.

First day of lacrosse for the kids this afternoon. They're both excited although I'm hoping Conor doesn't bean anybody with the stick!

Great Customer Service

I will admit, I love to shop. The one thing I ask is for is common courtesy and good service. In person, don't ignore me as you ring up my items - a simple hello and smile won't kill you. Online, don't ignore my emails or questions. There are a lot of sites out there and you have to work even harder for my business. When I deal with a company with good customer service, I like to let others know. So today here's a huge shout out to Fran at Frantic Stamper. Besides the fact that she has one of the best stocked shops with everything.....she is also just plain nice. I have an outstanding order that got held up through no fault of her own but she still took the time to continually update me on the status of my order. She made me feel like my business was appreciated. Love that. I plan on spending more money at her site (Mo, you didn't read that).

American Idol update: Chris wsa just plain awesome last night. For all those who said he is not diverse and can't do anything but the rock thing, you are so wrong. I love "What a Wonderful World" and he did justice to it. Go Chris!

Aaaah, Me Time!!

Okay, just a quick post here. The kids are at my in laws for a sleepover tonight and I have the house to MYSELF today. woooohooooo! In the CD player I have the best of Journey, Def Leppard, U2 and Rush playing (loud). I am going to stamp and create for the rest of the day. I love my children  dearly but I soooo needed this. Hope you enjoy your day!

Challenge Completed

Two days ago I posted images of my ADC Challenge. We were given a random set of items and told to create something with them. I can officially say I completed the challenge on time!! (Okay, so with only a few hours to go but I did it). And I like how it turned out. Many, many, many (you get the point) times I have this idea in my head of how I want a project to turn out. Most times it doesn't look that way and frankly, it very often doesn't look so good at all. But for the first time in a very long time, I can say that my vision wasn't too off base. Maybe the secret was that I didn't have much more than a sketch in my head of what I wanted to do; I left the details to chance.

                           

I decided to created a vase full of flowers using my items. The paper bags become the outlines of the vase and I painted them (and tried crackle paint which looked really neat except I then covered that up with the tags and you can't tell) and wrapped them around some styrofoam to create the base. The tags came from all the items I had been given and the piping became my main stem of the flowers. I then used other flowers to fill out the arrangement. And its all very light so I came in under the weight requirement (ha! don't I wish I could say THAT in real life!!) All in all, I like it. And I'm proud of myself for completing the challenge and thinking outside the box. This creative type of adventure might have to become a regular occurence.

Weddings

It's official - I'm the world's biggest pushover. My brother is getting married in June and guess who gets to address ALL the invitations?? Yep, that would be me. I have a craft fair in exactly 14 days and a ton of work and in that time, I agreed that I would address the envelopes. I felt bad and couldn't say no. I am soooo very afraid.....next year Meg starts kindergarten and her school has a pretty active PTO. I already feel myself being sucked into agreeing to all sorts of things because I can't say no.

On a different wedding note, I realized my designs for wedding cards is pretty lacking. I have a couple but they are not simple, neutral colors. So I made this. Yes, it's a little simple but for people who are looking for something universal, I think it fits.

I have to look where the bells stamp came from but the lace is from Cornish Heritage Farms. They are a new company for me but I love their items. I will devote a post just to them in the near future.