A Sweet New Year

Happy Saturday. I hope you are having a good weekend. Thanks to everyone that took time to vote for my Day At The Beach card in the last post. It turned out to be a winner!
Today I wanted to share a project I made for Rosh Hashanah which starts on September 8th this year. My Etsy Chai team is running a week long promotion Aug 1-8 called Sweet Deals For A Sweet Year. I will be offering 10% off purchases of $10.00 or more in my shop during that time. Just add the word Etsychai in the note to seller. You can also see the full list of the the other shops that are participating here
I began by using this weeks Mojo Monday Sketch

This is what I came up with

It started out as just a card but after giving it some thought I decided to turn it into a wine tag so it can be used as both.

I started by cutting the base of the card from the largest scalloped Nestabilities die using Enchanted Evening Cardstock. Next I cut a circle from Stampers Select cardstock then added some Harvest Gold Cardstock to the bottom. After that I ran it through my Cuttlebug using an embossing folder from SU. Next I stamped the Shofar Image from the Mazel Tov set with Versarmark ink and embossed it with silver embossing powder then I watercolored it with Enchanted Evening ink. The sentiment is also from the Mazel Tov set. Enchanted Evening Saddle Stitched Ribbon Finishes it off. One the inside I added another white circle so you can write a personal message.
That's it for now. I will be back soon with more things to share until then I hope the rest of your weekend is a great one and as always thanks for stopping by!

A Day At The Beach

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all have had a good start to your week and are staying cool where you are. Today I wanted to share a card I made for a challenge in my Modern Mom Group. It is a new team on Etsy that's members are all crafting moms. The challenge was to make something with a beach theme. This is what I came up with.

I started by cutting out the pail from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock using a Beach Pail SVG file. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got it though so if it looks familiar to you let me know I will put a link to it. After I cut it out I embossed it with the Sunshine embossing plate. Next I cut out a circle from stampers Select White cardstock then created the scene using images from the PTI Day at the Beach set. The little bucket is from a Beach Set by Lasting Impressions With Panache. The sand was made by tearing some Kraft Cardstock and adding it to the bottom. When I was done with that I matted the beach scene on a Harvest Gold scalloped circle. To finish the front off I added some baby popcorn trim to the top and bottom. I also finished the inside of the card too.

The winner of this challenge will get their shop featured on the blog all next month. You can vote for my card if you like it here. You can also see the rest of the entries there as well.
That's it for now. I hope to be back soon with more things to share in the meantime I hope the rest of your week is a great one and thanks for stopping by!

July Papertrey Bloghop

Tonight is the July Papertrey Bloghop
The challenge this month is to use office supplies in our projects. I had a hard time coming up with something for this challenge but this is what I finally came up with.

I have wanted to make a paperclip bookmark for awhile now and decided this would be the perfect opportunity. I started by making the fabric flower using Betsy Veldman's tutorial here When I was done I added a large Sweet Blush button and a pearl to the middle of the flower and some leaves using the small Delightful Dahlia leaf die and Simply Chartreuse felt. To finish it off I added a large paper clip to the back of the flower and then attached another paper flower to the back of that to secure the paperclip in.

The base of the card was made with Sweet Blush cardstock that I ran through my Cuttlebug using Tim Holtz's new Damask embossing folder. Next I cut a piece of Simply Chartreuse Cardstock and added a piece of lace eyelet to the bottom then I added a piece of linen ribbon to the top. After that I attached it to the embossed piece leaving an opening at the top. I stamped the sentiment from Alli Miles new Birthday Bash set then added some machine stitching. I finished the card off by adding the bookmark to the pocket. After the card is given the recipient can take the bookmark out and use it in a book.

A complete list of all the participants is on Nicole's blog you can see it here. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with now too. As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great night.

Happy Birthday Richie!

Today is Rich's birthday. To celebrate we spent the day in Estes Park and then drove through Rocky Mountain National Park on the way home. Neither of us had been to Estes Park since we were kids so it was nice to go back for a visit with Emilia. We spent our time there walking up and down the main street and going into the little shops. Here is a photo of Emilia and I outside one of them. As you can see she is taller than me now so it is getting harder to tell who is the mom. Emilia's favorite thing during our time there was the chocolate coconut malt she got in one of the homemade ice cream shops. Another highlight of the trip was when Rich talked us into doing one of those old time family photos. This is how it came out. He loves it! I think it is hysterical!
After we got done in Estes we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park on the highest continuest paved road in the world. I love this photo of Emilia at the top. As you can see it is definitely beautiful up there! One of the great things about living in Colorado!
The drive home was long but we had a great time overall.
I also wanted to share the card I made for him. As I have said before he likes simple cards so this is what I came up with. I think it also qualifies for this weeks Color Throwdown challenge too. I only had Night of Navy Cardstock though so I substituted PTI's Ocean Tides and Simply Chartreuse for the other 2 colors.
I also used Sharon Johnsons Stamp Simply #148 A CAS sketch from last week too.
The Ocean Tides background was embossed with a SU embossing folder. I made the patterned paper using PTI's Distressed stripes and Faux ribbon stamps. The sentiment is from Alli Miles new Birthday Bash Sentiments set.

One last thing I wanted to share with you is this Key Lime pie I made him.
That's it for now. I will be back tomorrow with my Papertrey Blog Hop project. Until then I hope you have a great night and thanks for stopping by.

Art Saves

I hope you all are having a good start to the week. It had been in the high 90's around here but today it is only going to be in the low 80's with rain. We could definitely use the moisture.
I don't have a new project done to share with you today but I am working on some things that I plan on sharing this weekend though. In the meantime I wanted to share something about myself that I have never talked about here before. I discovered the Crescendoh blog a few months ago and after reading some of the stories there about how art saves people I decided to share my story too. You can read more about it here if you are interested. I know that there are a lot of people out there that suffer with PD (Panic Disorder). I am hoping that by telling my story it will help others that have problems with this as well. I also run a Panic Attack support group on Yahoo. I have found it very helpful to talk to others that go through this. You are welcome to join us there if this is something you experience too. I am off to watch Anne Of Green Gables with Emilia now. I will be back soon with more crafty things to share. Until then I hope the rest of your week is a great one and thanks for stopping by.

Technique Tuesday

As promised here is the video showing how I made the background on the card in my last post. Hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions let me know.

Time for Tea

Happy Monday everyone! Today Emilia and I are starting 7th grade. I still remember when we started pre-k 8 years ago. Where does the time go? Our break has been a good one but it is time to get started again. We will only do a few lessons a week until after Labor though. That gives us a chance to ease into things slowly because I expect 7th grade to be even more challenging.
I hope you all had a good weekend. It was a quiet one around here so I was able to get some stamping done. The card I am sharing with you today was originally made for 3 challenges. I found out I was to late to enter one of them (last weeks 2 Sketches For You Challenge) so now it's only 2. That's okay though because my fellow Peep Nerina was the winner of that challenge. Congratulations Nerina! The card I made still qualifies for Color Throwdown 100 and the Caardvarks July Challenge which is to make a birthday card
This is what I came up with

I finally got the chance to use the Time for Tea Images from Lauren Meader and Catherine Ducette's A Spot Of Tea set. I created the pattern on the tea cup by using digi images. When I was done with that I printed the cup out and colored it with SU Regal Rose and Certainly Celery inks and a blender pen then I added some dimensional pearls to the centers of the roses. After I was done with that I cut a slit into the top of the cup and added a circle tag that I resized to make it smaller so the recipient can pull it out to revel the message.
The plaid background was made with the Dragged Madras technique which I originally learned from the April/May 2009 Technique Junkies Newsletter. I am going to make a video showing how I do it later today so watch for that tomorrow. I finished the card off by adding some piercing, scalloped border lace trim and a Happy Birthday sentiment from the new PTI Tea For Two Additions set. That's it for now. I will be back soon with that video until then I hope you have a great start to your week!

Clean and Simple Out Of My Comfort Zone

Happy Wednesday, I hope you all had a great 4th. Ours was pretty uneventful but that is how I like it. We did get to see some fireworks on Saturday night. Good thing we saw them then because we had a huge rainstorm on the 4th that canceled all the rest of the shows. Here is a photo of Emilia and her cousin Michale waiting for the show to start
The weather here is still kind of crazy. Today the temperature did not even hit 70 but is suppose be back in the 90's by the weekend. I sure hope so because I like it hot

The week started off okay but yesterday I went to the dentist for my 6 month checkup and found out I need to have some work done on 1 tooth to the tune of $200.00. I almost died when I heard that. I had a bad experience with the dentist when I was a kid and quit going for 13 years. When Emilia was 1 I decided to go again and ended up having 2 cavities. After that I changed my ways and for the last 11 years I have taken really good care of them and gone at least every 6mths in the hopes I could prevent anymore problems. I changed dentists late last year after another bad experience which makes me wonder how long this has been going on and I didn't even know about it. The dentist I am seeing now said this is nothing anyone caused though. I just hope fixing it will be easy and painless and not cause anymore problems in the long run. I have to wait until next month to get it done though. I just hope I can put it out of my mind until then and not worry about it.

Today I am sharing with you a card I created for the current Peeps Challenge #11 hosted by Nicole which is to make something that is out of your comfort zone. For me that would be a Clean and Simple card. I have the hardest time keeping anything simple and I like lots of layers too so this was definitely a challenge for me. I also used this weeks Clean and Simple sketch too. This is what I came up with.

I started by stamping the Balloons from the PTI Up Up And Away set with Versamark ink then I embossed them with fine black embossing powder. After that I colored them in with my Copics. In the process I discovered my orange zest trio has gone missing. I am actually think I may have thrown it out by accident which is not good. Fortunately I was able to improvise though. After I was done coloring the balloons I created the background by using a scalloped shape die cut and my airbrush. When I was done with that I stamped and embossed the sentiment on Stampers Select white cardstock then attached it and the balloons to the card using dimensionals. I sure hope this counts as a CAS card. This is about as simple as it gets for me.
That's it for now. I hope to be back soon with more to share, Until then I hope you have a great night and thanks for stopping by.

Apron Template and Peeps Color Challenges

ETA: This project was picked for Chic of the week! Super excited about that!

Happy July! I can't believe June is over. Where does the time go??? At least summer is still here though. We have been enjoying the warm weather and so has our garden. Look at how much it has grown. I also wanted to say thanks for all the well wishes in my last post regarding my migraines. So far this week has been better. Today I wanted to share with you my submission for this weeks Template Challenge on the JUGS blog which was to make an apron card. I also incorporated Heathers color challenge (turquoise, chartreuse, purple, gray and white) from the Peeps blog too. This is what I came up with.

I started by cutting the base of the apron from some chartreuse gingham cardstock I had from Martha Stewart. Next I stamped the sunflowers from the new PTI You Set additions By Melissa Bickford on Stampers Select White Cardstock using Smokey Shadow Ink, then I colored them in with my Copics. After that I matted it on Plum Pudding cardstock and attached it to the front of the apron. When I was done with that I stamped the sentiment from the You Set using Plum Pudding and Hawaiian Shores Ink, then I punched it out with a 3/4 circle punch and edged it with Plum Pudding Cardstock. To finish the front of the apron off I machine stitched all around the edges then added some ribbon from my stash that matched the Hawaiian Shores color perfectly.
Instead of having the pocket on the front I put it on the back. I thought it would be a great place to add a package of seeds.

Do you have big plans for the holiday weekend? My brother in law and his son are coming to visit. I plan on stamping some too. I hope to be back with more things to share soon. Until then thanks for stopping by!