Be Magical and Coffee, Yum!

i've been working on some new cards, but i can't show them here just yet - some are on their way (or will be) to friends, and the others are part of a batch for a customer. Yes, a customer! She is one of my best friends - we've known each other since we were 15, met in high school psychology class. i know she reads my blog, so i want her to at least be a little surprised when she gets her cards.
So instead i thought i'd post some older cards. These are from a couple months ago.

i made 2 of these and sent one to my MIL. She's constantly bugging me to sell my cards. ;)

Ingredients: PP-MME; CS-stash; stamps-Rhonna Farrer's Swirls V:1, Brenda Walton's Garden Words (flowers), sentiment-?; ink-Palette Hybrid, Colorbox; brad-MM.

i made this one for my mom. A little background on this: Two Christmases ago, we got mom a Senseo coffee pot, the kind that takes pods and makes 1-2 cups at a time. We are some serious coffee drinkers in our family, and for years i've been grinding beans to make the best, freshest coffee i can. Well, goodbye beans! The Senseo pot makes the best coffee i think i've ever had, and it's never, ever bitter. i can't say as much for my beans. With Senseo, the coffee even comes out with a foamy top, and the overall texture is velvet and smooth. A few months ago i finally got my own Senseo pot and shelved my regular pot for emergencies, i.e. if we run out of pods and can't get to the store right away. That has yet to happen because i stock up on pods, hehe. Anyway, this card was in honor of that oh-so-delicious coffee.

Ingredients: PP-stash (can't remember who makes it); CS-stash; stamps-foam stamps from Wal-Mart, letters from Alphabet Pixie's Love Letters set, faux ribbon from Art Warehouse Ribbons and Lace set; ink-Palette Hybrid, Colorbox, Ranger Archival; ribbon-Wal-Mart, A.C. Moore; brads-MM; pop-dots.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Wild and Wonderful, Part 2

These photos are from 2003.



i love West Virginia in Autumn.

Foggy sunrise.


This is one of my favorite photos of my dad. This was taken during one of our hikes.




Thanks for stopping by! i hope everyone has a great day!

Rockin' Girl Bloggers

i was nominated for the title Rockin' Girl Blogger by my friend Dana over at Kismet, Art, Life. Thanks, Dana! Apparently, i'm to add the graphic for this great nomination as well as nominate 5 other bloggers. The latter i can do, the former, not so much. For a very long time now i've had issues saving any picture or graphic from the internet to my own files. They never save as the correct file type and i have so far been unable to convert them. i've told this problem to many people and so far no one has an answer. :(
Anyway, here are my 5 picks. Some or all of these may have already been nominated, but hey, i've always been a rule breaker. ;)

Dana - She nominated me, and i'm probably not supposed to nominate her back, but like i said, rules shmules. She is a wife, mother of two, and all-around busy mom. She makes AMAZING art and is also a foodie like me. If i need inspiration, i know i can always find it here.
Penelope Dullaghan - Her art and graphic design work are fabulous. She's also one of the great minds behind Illustration Friday.
Heather Nichols - She makes all kinds of wonderful art, including reworking used items, something that is close to my heart. You can find a link at her blog for her Etsy shop, Ink and Nickel, where she sells some awesome stuff!
Ali Edwards - There's a lot of great art as well as photos here. A very creative lady and a neat blog.
Michelle Lamar - Definitely check out this blog! It's called White Trash Mom and is sure to bring a smile to your face. i love her style. i actually found this one while playing around on google one day.

Wild and Wonderful

i have had the great fortune in my life to be able to travel a lot, thanks to having a father who worked for United Airlines for many years. i have been to almost every state, including Alaska and Hawaii, and even out of the country - New Zealand and England. i mention this to say that after all that exploring, i still love West Virginia, where i lived as a child until i was 7. My dad still lives there, in the house where we lived and that he and my mother and grandfather built.
i did most of my traveling with my dad when i was a teenager. Along with a love of travel, he also passed to me a love of photography. He himself is an amazing nature photographer. i love all forms of art, and photography is very close to my heart. i wanted to share a few pictures i took in West Virginia. These are about 4 years old, but some of my favorites.

Best Wishes Bird

i love this paper by My Mind's Eye, and instead of hoarding it, i am actually using it. i'd say that's mostly because i bought it as a slab (and for half-price!) so i am more apt to use it. Here's another card made with some of that paper.

There's piercing in the dotted swirls, hard to see here. The bird stamp was a dollar find at A.C. Moore, and i've gotten so much use out of it.

Other ingredients: CS - stash and Colorbok textured; stamps - Rhonna Farrer Swirls V:1, Papertrey Ink; ink - Palette Hybrid Burnt Sienna, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Alabaster; ribbon from my stash; brads - MM.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

Flower cards...

Sorry i've been absent for awhile! Life, as usual, can be hectic sometimes, and this takes a backseat to many other priorities. These are a few of the cards i've made in the last few weeks. i'll upload some more later, in the next day or two.

i love Brenda Walton's Garden Words stamp set, and find myself coming back to it often. The flower stamp shown here is from that set. i stamped them with Ranger Archival ink then colored them using watercolor pencils. i cut them out and attached them with brads onto the circles. It's hard to see in this picture, but there's a small yellow circle in the center behind each flower. IRL, this adds an extra "pop".

Other ingrediants: sentiment from Papertrey Ink; PP is Rob and Bob Studio; ribbon, CS and brad is from my stash; blue ink is Versamagic.

i like this card overall, but i think seeing it now that the cream CS where the sentiment is stamped is too much - i should have shrunk that down.

Ingredients: PP - Rob and Bob; CS - stash; stamps - big flower from MM foam flowers set, stem, leaves, grass from Inkadinkado's Tree set, swirls by Studio G, sentiment is Papertrey Ink; ink - Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ice Blue, Colorbox Lilac, Versamagic Spanish Olive, Ranger Archival; Ranger Star Dust Stickles (flower center); brad from my stash; pop dots.

More Rob and Bob PP!

Ingredients: PP - R and B; CS - stash; stamps - MM (dots), Papertrey Ink; ink - Colorbox Lilac, Versamagic Spanish Olive, Ranger Archival, Marvy LePlume II marker (faux stitching on border); ribbon - Wal-Mart; dimensional glue; EP; pop dots.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a lovely day!

Independance day.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday! Every year, Paul gets fireworks, and every year Z. aches to light them off, but then gets so scared he sometimes watches from inside! i noticed this year he stayed outside the whole time - he's getting braver! Loud noises have scared him since he was a baby, and he hates when the military jets fly over and do their maneuvers. i sometimes wonder if it stems from an experience we had when he was very little, maybe 2 or 3 months old, if that. Me, mom, and Z. were at a nearby state park, high up on a ridge overlooking the dam. A military plane flew over so low to the ground and so fast that i had to cover Z. with my body and cover his ears to shield him. It was terrifying, and mom and i both screamed. The pressure was intense. Luckily, none of us suffered any damage to our hearing, but it was scary, and i imagine extremely frightening to a baby.
Tuesday night we lit a few fireworks, and i got a few good shots of Paul and Z. with sparklers. The pictures don't look as good here because i had to scale back on size for web posting (blame dial-up). In my files, they're much clearer.



Have a lovely day!

inspire...

Finally! i've been trying for 3 days to upload this card, with no success until now. Every time it would almost finish, my internet would sign off on its own. Very frustrating!

i made this card after seeing Nichole Heady's post about watercoloring embossed images. i used watercolor pencils, but i think it still fits the bill. i rarely use this color scheme, but i like the overall product. See the corners punched around the brads? i don't have a ticket corner punch (i hope to get one at some point, love that punch!) so i just used a hole punch, which is why it may look a bit crooked. Oh, i forget the exact dimensions of the card, but it's bigger than a regular size card - roughly 7" x 5".

Ingredients: CS - blue/black/white from my stash; PP - My Mind's Eye; stamps - Hampton Art Stamps (main image), Inkadinkado (sentiment), SU!'s Noteworthy (label); ink - Versamark, Versamagic, Ranger Archival; watercolor pencils; EP; ribbon - A.C. Moore; brads from my stash; pop dots.

TFL, and have a splendiferous day! Happy 4th to everyone if i'm not on here again until after!