Whirlpool of Imagination

My Orange Butterfly

Good Morning! I tried and tried last night to upload my butterfly card but Typepad was being persnickety and kept timing out on me so I'm back this morning to try again. I needed to make a birthday card for someone who likes orange tones. I haven't used my butterflies from Papertrey Ink in a while so I thought I'd pull them out.

This is pretty straightforward. The butterfly and sentiment are both from Papertrey. I added some orange stickles to some of the flowers for a bit of sparkle. I thought about crystals but this was being mailed so I went the flatter route.

I made it through my ten days of cleansing/detox - woohoo! Now that I've got my insides nice and healthy, I need to keep that up to help with losing more weight. It's much easier getting up to exercise at ridiculously early hours since its so bright in the mornings so I'm doing good at that end of things. Alrighty, I'm off to have a healthy breakfast. Have a great day!

Grads Galore

The season of graduation is upon us. Congrats to all those who have family members graduating - it's such an exciting time. I had to make two graduation cards for a girl whose school colors are kelly green, gold and white. I had a bit of a tough time initially because I never use that color combo, except for St. Patrick's Day.

I knew that for one of the cards I could pull out my trusty grad bella from www.stampingbella.com I colored her with prismacolor markers and used a bit of sakura metallic gelly roll pen for the flowers.

I used a bit of SU designer paper for the background and the circle and sentiment are from www.papertreyink.com

I'm sorry for the way that I have to add the links. Typepad recently changed their compose page and while there is a button for adding a link, it won't allow me to use it for some reason. If anyone can help me figure out why, I'd be very grateful.

Here is the second card. I went a bit simpler on this one. The graduation hat stamp is from PSX and made use of the congrats cuttlebug background to help finish off the card.

And that's my cards for today. Thanks so much for the encouragement I got from the last post. Today was tough because we went to a party but I scrounged around enough food that I could eat so I wasn't starving through the whole thing. Only two more days and I can be a little less restrictive and boy, my insides better be chemical free after all this!

Getting Back on Track

You know how, at certain times of your life, you realize that you have to take care of yourself and stay healthy? That's happened at various times in my life when I kind of stray away from healthy living. About a year and a half ago I made a commitment to change and I did. I ate better and exercised and lost thirty pounds. Recently, I feel like I'm treading water. I've plateaued at my current weight and really need to lose more. My eating hasn't been as strict and getting up at 5am is getting really tough again.

So, I realized that I needed to jump start myself again. Last Sunday I started a 10 day cleansing detox program. I'm cleaning out my system and getting it healthy again and hopefully that will bring with it a new determination and commitment to healthy eating and exercise. I haven't felt the greatest over the last 6 days and haven't made much of anything pretty in my craft room to show you. But I'm on day 7 and the end is in sight. I may even try to craft later on today.

How do you recommit when you find yourself treading water? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have.

Have a fantastic holiday weekend. Stay safe and enjoy!

Spring/Summer TAC Retired List

For those of you who like to buy stamps from TAC, the list of stamps retiring from the current catalog were just released. If you'd like to get some of these, feel free to contact me.

Spring/Summer 2008 Retired List

 

Page                 Stock #                        Name

 

14                    T2360                          Wedding Wishes

17                    T2849                          Old World Ornamentals

17                    T2809                          You’re A Hoot

18                    T2774                          Remembrance

19                    T2755                          F is for Family

21                    T2321                          Blossom Builders

26                    T2746                          A God Thing

27                    T2283                          Fanciful Flowers

27                    T2301                          Truly Blessed

31                    T2605                          Beautiful Place

32                    T2639                          Stipple Bet

33                    T2566                          Tip-Toe

33                    T2569                          Write It

34                    T2650                          Forget Not

36                    T2660                          Abundance Is

37                    T2573                          Distressed Designs

37                    T2325                          Hip Hardware

38                    T2406                          Heart-itude

38                    T2823                          You are Mine

40                    T2370                          His Angels

40                    T2615                          Live Inspired

41                    T2375                          Little Inspirations

41                    T2874                          My Spiritual Journey

43                    T2661                          Nurture Your Soul

43                    T2643                          Old Friend

44                    T2610                          Running Stitches

45                    T2649                          Needed Numbers

45                    T2288                          So Silly

50                    T2327                          The Buzzz

51                    T2357                          Pals

51                    T2353                          Sassy Cats

53                    T2334                          More Season Skinnies

54                    T2328                          Hang Loose

55                    T2656                          Beach Fun

56                    T2619                          Don’t Bug Me

56                    T2650                          Lily Pad Pond

61                    T2152                          So Girly Swirly

67                    T2358                          Birthday Buggies

68                    T2858                          Party Notes

69                    T2202                          Calendar

69                    T2728                          Happy Celebration

69                    T2548                          Mini Sampler

69                    T2690                          Party Time

69                    T1205                          Wishing You

69                    T1203                          You’re Invited

75                    T2680                          Animal Blocks

75                    T2683                          Playful Paisley

75                    T2712                          Sentimental Boxes

76                    T2611                          Friendly Note

76                    R2027                          Pretty Posies

80                    T2265                          Be

81                    T2124                          Diva Dresses

81                    T2578                          My Favorites

81                    T1232                          Rub a Dub Dub

85                    T2540                          Ragdolls

86                    T2181                          Be Authentic

87                    T306                            Chicken Scratch

87                    T2769                          He Said She Said

87                    T2221                          Sweet Sayings

88                    T2821                          My Story

88                    T2695                          Swirly Seasons

90                    T2623                          Friendly Goblins

90                    T2788                          Retro Halloween

90                    T2789                          Retro Treaters

91                    T2562                          Fangtastic

92                    T2604                          Autumn Smiles

92                    T2791                          Giggly Goblins

92                    T2794                          Jolly Jack-O-Lanterns

92                    T2800                          The First Thanksgiving

92                    T2602                          Too Spooky

95                    T441                            Faith Hope Love

95                    T2618                          The Only Thing

99                    T2515                          Buggie Christmas

100                  T2372                          May Your Merry

100                  T2797                          Retro Christmas

100                  T2787                          Retro Reindeer

101                  T2713                          Happy Holiday Squares

102                  T2704                          License to Chill

A Sunday Gift

On the morning of the last day of CCD for Meg and Conor, I realized that I hadn't gotten anything for the teachers. Both teachers worked really hard this year and I really wanted to give them something. So I quickly made up a couple of junior legal pad covers.

The stamps are all from Papertrey. The cross is stamped in pomegranate which matched really well with the patterned paper from TAC. The sentiment is stamped in navy and I added a Swarovski crystal in the center of the cross to finish it off.

Along with the pad, I decorated a RSVP pen, put both items in a cello bag, tied with ribbon and there you go, a nice little gift.

More Pink and Brown

I took a lovely drive up to Saratoga Springs yesterday for a wedding shower. I can just imagine what it must be like in the fall when all the leaves turn. If you leave up that way, you live in a beautiful area. This was the pink and brown wedding shower. Along with bella last week, I made a card for my sister in law.

I stayed with the pink and brown theme, this time using a stamp from Stampin' Up. The dress is colored with a prisma color marker. I went over some of the flowers with a pink sparkle gel pen and some of the others with a clear gel pen. I "colored" the bodice of the dress with stickles.

I had a fun time seeing everyone but boy was a tired last night. It's amazing how tiring sitting in a car can be!

Have a spectacular Sunday!

It's Party Season

Meg went a long stretch without any birthday parties. Now, the month of May has become one long party. One of her very good friends just turned seven and she and I decided we'd make some of the gifts. And remember, Meg likes sparkle.

First off, we made an altered composition notebook. At this age, girls are just getting into writing in journals and such. Her friends favorite colors are a light blue and lavender so we tried to stay to those colors. The "S" was Meg's favorite part. It's a chipboard letter that she painted with acrylic paint. Then we stuck it into a glue pad and poured glitter all over it. The bottom flowers are a shiny almost styrofoamy material with a glitter brad in the center. The prima flowers on top have crystals in their center - as you can see, we went big on the sparkle.

Then we altered a large letter for her. Meg first painted the edges of the letter. We traced the letter onto the patterned paper and I cut it out for her. Once the paper was in place, we added another one of those foamy flowers with a sparkly brad and lots of rub ons. Both the butterfly rub-ons and the flowers were sparkly rub-ons so Meg was all over using those. She decided on the placement and which ones to use. I had to help her a bit with the actual transfer process because some of those didn't want to come off no matter how hard she tried!

Along with the notebook and letter, we decorated a pen and made a little bookmark to match as well. We added a couple of books in the gift and there you go, a cute gift for a 7 year old.

We had two days of gorgeous spring weather. Now, the sun has deserted us and the rain has returned. Do you know it has rained on a Friday for something like the last two months?? It's becoming a running joke here that it's Friday, of course it's raining! But I suppose the flowers that we just planted in the window boxes need a bit of rain. Have a great day!

A Parade of Brides

Have you ever noticed how events seem to come in bunches? Mo and I haven't been to a wedding in two years and within a two month time span, we are attending three. That, of course, means wedding showers. The funny thing is each of the three weddings has three completely different sets of people attending. Therefore, the shower cards are exactly the same, except for color.

I basically took the shower invitation to be my guide. I chose the colors from the shower invite and made the shower card to match those.

This is the basic design of the card. The invitation for this shower was lavender and white. I chose to add the black layer to give some contrast to the lavender.

This is a bella stamp from Stamping Bella. She is accented with prismacolor markers and the flowers are colored in with a sakura metallic gel pen.

The invite for this shower was pink and brown, one of my favorite color combinations. The card is colored exactly the same except for a change in color for the flowers.

And here is my third bella. The invite was, as you can see, a simple black and white. I really like the black and white combo here. The contrast just seems to pop between the colors.

There you have it, the same card, three color schemes. Now I just need to work on the cards for the weddings!

Thinking Rust

Yesterday ended up being such a great day - I think we should have Mother's Day more often. It was so nice having a family dinner with grandparents and uncles on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.

Today's card uses two stamp companies that I haven't used in a while. Have you tried the stamps from Art Declassified yet? These stamps are red rubber stamps that come mounted on ez mount ready for acrylic blocks. Some of the sets come just the red rubber but they send the ez mount with the stamps so you just have to cut and mount them yourself. These are nicely etched, high quality stamps. They take to all kinds of ink really well and the images stamp fantastic.

For this card, I took the funky vine image and stamped it several times using rust chalk ink.

The sentiment is also stamped in rust and it's from a clear sentiment set from Stampendous. This was the first time I had used Stampendous clear stamps. I have used their red rubber mounted stamps over the years but not the clear. I was pleasantly surprised. Every time I use one of these stamps, I get a great image. They too take all types of ink well and are very easy to use.

This card was a fast, quick card that looks cool, to me at least. I would highly recommend the Stampendous clear stamps as well as the Art Declassified red rubber stamps. Both companies offer quality stamps that make the art of creating much easier.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's and grandmom's! My day started out so sweet. The kids gave me the projects they made for me and then they made me breakfast in bed. Starting the day with a healthy egg white omelet and fruit was just perfect!

Today, I have a recipe for you. We've eaten this hot or cold and I have to say, I prefer it hot myself.

Spicy Black Beans

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (29 oz) can black beans with liquid

1 chipotle chili in adobo from a can, minced  (*Note, these chili's are HOT, use them sparingly)

Juice of one fresh lime

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Spray a saucepan with olive oil cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute one minute. Add the beans with liquid, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Add the chili, lime juice and cilantro and heat through.

This can be served over rice, pasta or couscous or used as just a side dish to the rest of your meal. When we make this, we either double or triple it because it is very popular. It's great as a leftover and reheats well if you want to eat it hot.

Have a great day!