Elephant & Chevrons for baby

I just wanted to say hello. It's been a while.

In mid-November, I was experiencing some discomfort in my back (I've had some back issues in the past).  I was visiting my chiropractor to be treated for it.  Usually, his adjustments help me. But, one day, my entire right leg (on the outer side) including the foot...went numb.

Scared the life out of me.
My leg was numb, and it was very painful to sit for anything more than 5 or 10 minutes.
In the months since then, I have spent many, many hours lying flat on the floor, took steroid packs to reduce the swelling, iced my back over and over and over again, and began physical therapy twice a week shortly before Christmas.  I'm still doing PT, and continue with my exercises to be done at home.

I've got a herniated disc or discs, and people ask, "What did you do to yourself??"
Honestly, I don't know what was the straw that broke the camel's Colleen's back.
Apparently, I've got arthritis in some of the discs on my spine.
I sit for almost 10 hours total each day, five days a week, working full time, hunched over a computer.
I have a hobby that involves lots of sitting (wink).
And, admittedly, I don't exercise enough.

Slowly, I am getting better, but it's taking a while.

I just wanted to say hello and let you know I have missed being in this blog space with those of you who visit.  I hope you had a beautiful holiday season, a blessed Christmas, and spent precious time with loved ones.

Planning to come here again as soon as I am able.
Until then, many blessings to you!!

Under the weather

Available at Arts Plus Gallery

Happy Thursday, my friends!  We're almost to another weekend...hooray!
Today, I'm sharing a card I made with new-to-me dies from Paper Smooches called Wedding Shower. WHAT.A.CUTE.SET.

There's an umbrella in the die set, along with a heart, a raindrop, and wedding rings.

What I like about that set is that the umbrella can be used for a baby shower creation, or as you see here, in a get well card.  I just happened to have the perfect sentiment (DeNami Design) to go with it.

I paired three fun, bright, cheerful patterned papers (Stampin' Up!), with a kraft card base. I used craft foam under the umbrella's fabric and handle portions.  And for the shaft and handle, I first die-cut them from white scrap cardstock, and then used an 18kt Gold Paint Pen from Krylon to give a beautiful golden luster.  A couple of sparkling sequins stand in for rain drops. :-)

Thanks a BUNCH for visiting me today!
May you be healthy and blessed!

A Krafty Shower

Hi there!  I'm sure today's card looks a bit familiar.  I did similar versions here and here.  I like when hydrangeas rain down, what can I say?  =)

It's a pretty simple card that doesn't need much explanation.  I hope you've enjoyed it today! Take care, my friends.

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU; Large Umbrella - DeNami Design Accessories & Tools: Hydrangea punch - Martha Stewart; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger

Baby Shower Flowers

Hi!  I have had a thing lately for raining hydrangea blossoms down upon an umbrella.  I love how cute it looks, and this one is perfect for a baby shower.

Had to add my signature pearls, of course, both Liquid and hard gem versions.

I wish I had received a card like this for my baby shower 16 years ago.  I'd have had it framed, and hung it in the baby's room.  A tiny Haley and I would have looked at it every day, talking about flowers and pearls, counting the blossoms, and discussing what an umbrella is good for.

When she was a wee one, sitting in her high chair as I busily washed bottles and dishes (we had no dishwasher at the time), I'd talk non-stop to her.  I figured it would be more interesting to her as she sat captive, and she'd learn a lot in the process.  As I washed and put away spoons, forks, dishes, etc., I'd say, "Spoon.  This is a spoon, and we eat with it.  Haley eats with a spoon."  I felt sort of ridiculous saying these things, but, hey, this is how we learn, right?

I like thinking back on those days.  I recall being tired often, but things seemed much simpler then.  It was nice.  Now, I've got a teenager and one almost-teenager.  Life is...different.  Tempers flare more often.  Moods fluctuate from hour to hour.  Small annoyances become magnified.  I'm still trying to learn to parent children in this age range.  I think I aced the younger years, but the jury's out on my ability to parent through this phase!

Stamps: Large Open Umbrella - DeNami Design; Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU Paper:  Vintage Cream - PTI; Baja Breeze, Soft Sky, Pink Pirhouette, Very Vanilla - SU Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Accessories & Tools: Hydrangea punch - Martha Stewart; Copic markers; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger; pearls - Queen & Co.; corner rounder punch - Fiskars

Texty Shower Umbrella

Happy Monday!  Today's card reminds me of a quilt, with that pretty paper from Authentique's Uncommon paper pad.

This could be used for a bridal or baby shower, with the sweet little DeNami Design Umbrella sporting a shiny coating of Glossy Accents.

Thanks so much for coming by today.  I hope you have a week full of blessings!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes - SU; umbrella - DeNami Design Paper: patterns - Uncommon - Authentique; Vintage Cream, white - PTI Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko; Basic Gray - SU Fibers: thread Accessories & Tools: doilies - Wilton; pearls; sewing machine; Fancy Tags die - Spellbinders; Glossy Accents - Ranger

It's Pretty CAS

Yep, it's a pretty clean and simple card, as you can see.  I almost didn't show it because it is so sparse.

I had received this Verve set, Brighter Days, from winning a contest months ago, and the sweet rose and leaf stamps are a gift from a dear friend.  They are from DeNami's Solid Rose Accents.  I added a gold sequin to the rose, and a little bee sequin near the top of the sentiment.  These I raided from my children's long-neglected crafting stash.  I'm happy to oblige if they don't want their stuff anymore.  =)

Thanks a bunch for coming by today.  May YOUR days be filled with sunshine and laughter!

Stamps: Solid Rose Accents - DeNami Design; Brighter Days - Verve Paper: white - PTI Ink: Versafine Onyx Black - Tsukineko; Green Galore, Rose Red - SU Accessories & Tools: gold, bee sequins

Heart of Roses for Mother's Day

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm wrapping up the week with a clean-and-simple, one layer Mother's Day card.

I used only two stamps:  a sentiment from Stampin' Up!'s Well-Scripted, and a sweet rose from DeNami Design's Solid Rose Accents.  I practiced the heart shape first on scrap paper, then crossed my fingers and hoped it would turn out okay on the card.  It did - mostly - but that's where a strategically-placed bow comes into play.  ;-)

The three pink inks I used did not photograph quite as they look in real life.  There's a much warmer, rosier feel than shows in the picture.

I've got more Mom cards to share next week, and in the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Stamps: Solid Rose Accents - DeNami; Well-Scripted - SU Paper: white - PTI Ink: Pixie Pink, Pretty In Pink, Pink Passion - SU; Versafine Onyx Black - Tsukineko Fibers: Pretty In Pink grosgrain ribbon - SU Accessories & Tools: corner rounder punch - Fiskars

Baby Elephant

I've had this little elephant in my stamping stash for a number of years now, ever since I was on The Play Date Cafe design team.  Paulina of DeNami Design generously gifted our team with her adorable stamps at the time.

I stamped him on purple polka dotted paper from Nana's Nursery - DCWV, trimmed and mounted on a doily die cut.  The striped background is also from the same paper stack.  You can see some elephant rump inside the card, too.  ;-)

The sentiment and little flowers are from Inspired By Stamping's Oh, Baby!  The yellow Gingham is from Market Street Stamps (oh, how I miss them!).  See how the doily die cut extends over the edge of the card?  This means I need to use a bigger envelope, and I use an A6 (4.75" x 6.5").

By the way, I found a very useful Envelope Size Chart HERE.  I keep a copy near my crafting supplies, as well as in my Evernote program.  I've blogged before about Evernote, and I can't say enough good stuff about it.  It keeps my stamp, die, embossing folder and punch inventories in an easy-to-use format.  I can access the program via my computer, phone and tablet.  If I am looking for a particular stamp, or a particular sentiment, I type in the keyword (say, "giggle" for example) and Evernote shows me all the sets I own that have the word "giggle" in them.  I've started uploading my recipe cards and magazine pages featuring recipes we like into the program, too.

Stamps: flowers, sentiment - Oh, Baby! - Inspired By Stamping; Gingham - Market Street Stamps; elephant - DeNami Design Paper: white - PTI; Pear Pizzazz - SU; stripe, dots - Nana's Nursery - DCWV Ink: Lavender Lace, Barely Banana - SU; Versafine Onyx Black - Tsukineko Fibers: Certainly Celery twill - SU Accessories & Tools: crochet tape - IBS; doily die cut - My Favorite Things; heart border punch - SU; pearls - Queen & Co.

Bandages and Tissues

Yes, bandages and tissues.  This is what I am featuring today. It's in honor of the many tissues I've had to use during this cold of mine.  ;-)

I made these weeks ago, and saved them for a future date to post.  So here you go!

These are simple, flat cards that are pretty quick to make:

Card base by K & Co., Lawn Fawn stamps.  I CASE'd Latisha's sweet stamp arrangement.

Lawn Fawn stamps

More Lawn Fawn.  I CASE'd Anni's card.  Loved this idea!

K & Co. card base, DeNami Design stamps.

On the DeNami umbrella above, I used some Copic markers in shades close to those on the card base and dotted on a pattern of my own.

It felt good to bang out a group of cards in a short amount of time.  That's hard to do with my fancier creations!



Dimensions: 4.25" x 5.5" each
Stamps: On The Mend - Lawn Fawn; Large Open Umbrella, Under The Weather - DeNami
Paper: white - PTI; K & Co. card bases; Print Patterns - SU
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko
Other: Scalloped Rectangle, Scalloped Oval, Oval dies - Spellbinders; Copic markers

Keen On A Neon Kite

Hello everyone!  I never thought I'd make a card with neon colors.  I lived through the Eighties, when the neon rage was first born.  I hated neon then, and don't like it now, either.  Then along came the Keen On Neon challenge at Moxie Fab World.  For some reason, I just felt compelled to play along, especially when I remembered I had some neon buttons from DeNami Design in my stash.

My MO for card-making with bright colors is 1 part brights: 3 parts white (or even more!).  And so it is that my card today is mostly white --

I paper-pieced the DeNami Fly A Kite stamp with Post-It notes.

Other challenges entered:

• ATCAS - 'Sweet' - I think this is a sweet kite..does that count?  ;)
• Go Fish - 'Anything Goes' (love that kind of challenge during a busy time!)
• Annette Allen's Celebrate link-up party - thank you, Annette, for this joyful challenge!

Thank you all SO much for leaving love to this ol' Moxie Fabber of the Week!  It was great fun keeping that most awesome of crafty secrets before the big announcement last Monday.  :-)  Thank you to my new subscribers and followers.  I really appreciate you being here!

Thank you to the kind ladies at Just Us Girls, for my Chic of the Week honor for my Ivory Christmas Tag.    What nice news!

And last, but most certainly not least, my heartfelt prayers go out to everyone touched by the tragedy at Sandy Point Elementary School in Connecticut last Friday.  Words just cannot describe the horror we all share about this.  It's touched every parent's very core, and I hope all of our children are getting more hugs and "I love you's" than usual.  Children are so very precious.  Life is so very precious.  Let us not forget to remind those we love how important they are to us, every day.




Dimensions: 4.25" x 5.5"
Stamps: Sending You Love, Fly A Kite - DeNami Design
Paper: white - PTI
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko
Fibers: white cotton thread - SU
Other: doily - Wilton; Post-It Notes; buttons - DeNami Design

Sending Christmas Love

Happy Weekend!  I'm cranking out the Christmas cards as best I can, since I need to send some from my family, as well as for my stash at the arts gallery, where I sell my cards.  

Finally got to play with some new-to-me DeNami goodies that I won months ago.  The snowflake was stamped in red, then colored in with kraft and white markers.  I also dotted some areas with Liquid Pearls.

The sentiment panel is lopped off one side, and I rather like how this looks.  Can't take credit for the idea:  I've been poring over the pages of Card Creations by Paper Crafts Magazine.  I get SO much inspiration there!

My inspiration comes from these challenges:

• DeNami sketch #14 - I turned the sketch and took a little liberty with the sentiment placement

• Pals Paper Arts - 'A Classy Color Challenge'

Thanks for dropping in today!



Dimensions: 4.25" x 5.5"
Stamps: Sending You Love, Ornamental Centerpiece - DeNami
Paper: Crumb Cake, Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla - SU; white - PTI
Ink: Riding Hood Red - SU; Versafine Onyx Black - Tsukineko
Fibers: red ribbon; twine - Creative Impressions
Other: white gel pen; red rhinestone - Queen & Co.; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger; Grommet Tags die - Spellbinders; Crumb Cake marker - SU

Dotted Elephants

I've just returned from vacation, and have many things to share with you.  This is kind of a long post, so if you just want to look at the card below and be on your merry way, go right ahead!  I don't mind.  :o)

One thing to share is a card that is published in the Stamp It! Volume 9 issue of Paper Crafts magazine, and it's featured on page 49.

Here's my card --

I used a DeNami elephant and some Copic markers to create this little 'parade'.  A Copic blender pen helped remove some of the red ink to show pattern on the middle guy.

We were on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week, visiting my in-laws and just got back.  We had a good time, and I was able to finally kick this bronchitis-turned-bronchospasm problem I've had for a few weeks.  (Amen to that!)

A dock by the sound.  This is a short walk from the house, and this is where we crabbed.

Okay, so you know how most of us do laundry or grocery shop when we get home from vacation?  Well, we had to look for a car.  Hmph.  My oh-so-dependable, well-maintained mini van's transmission had a sudden death while my family and I were out getting supplies to go crabbing.  As my hubby was driving into a parking lot, the car made a loud, strange noise and I said "That doesn't sound good."  He agreed.  He drove a few more yards and it made a louder sound, combined with a lurching motion.  We decided we'd better head back to the house instead, and he tried to pull out of the parking spot when it lurched all of us quite violently.  We were now in a lane in the parking lot (in people's way) when the car stopped altogether.  The engine was still running, so my hubby wanted to push the car while in neutral to a safer spot.  No dice.  It wouldn't budge.  It was as if the emergency brake was on, but it wasn't.  My father in law came to get me and the girls, while AAA came to tow our car to a garage.  The price tag was almost $4,000 and a 3-day work time to put a different (read:  not brand new) transmission in the van.  Based on many factors, my husband decided not to fix it.  It was a 10 year old car, but the good thing was that we had owned it and there were no more car payments on it.

Our little crabber, helping her dad.

We had to leave the car down there, and donated it to a charitable organization.  Luckily, my in-laws were able to lend us a car for the ride home, otherwise we'd have to rent one one-way.

One of 15 crabs caught - and returned - in the sound.

We're leasing a 2012 Chevy Traverse, which is an SUV crossover vehicle.  I get to pick it up tomorrow.  I'm a little excited to drive something new and different, but we were just not prepared for another car payment so soon.  :/

The clouds just seem bigger down south!

We had fun on vacation, despite this unexpected event.  The kids and Daddy went on a waverunner, and they all enjoyed that.  I stayed on shore to take pictures, but they didn't turn out so good.  I'm better at photographing things that don't move too much!

This is Hazy Daisy.  She lives at the pottery shop we always visit when we are in Manteo.

We also took a Dolphin Cruise, and saw about 6-8 of them.  Again, didn't get any good shots, plus it was raining that day so every photo is gray, and shows maybe the tip of a dorsal fin.  ;-)  There were two good beach days, and the water felt so warm.  I did not find any beach glass this time 'round.

I shopped (when I still had the car), and found a scrapbook store, TJ Maxx, antiques shops and Tuesday Morning all within a short distance.  I came home with some fun 'souvenirs'.  ;)

The sun seems to dip very quickly at the end of the day.  I ran for my camera and almost missed it.  You can just barely see it above the sound.  This is the view from the deck.  It's really, really lovely.

When I came home, I was delighted to see so many comments on the posts I had scheduled this past week.  Thank you ALL for leaving love for me!  It was a good end to my trip.

I also discovered that my hydrangea card earned honors at City Crafter, CASE Study and The Shabby Tea Room.  Thank you to all the ladies at those challenge sites!

Well, that's it for me.  I hope I can do some crafting soon...I missed it a lot!  And I've missed visiting your blogs, so you will see me soon.



Dimensions: 4.25" x 5.5"
Stamps: Elephant - DeNami; Timeless Tags - The Craft's Meow
Paper: white - PTI; Baja Breeze - SU
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko
Fibers: white crochet lace - Simplicity; red satin ribbon - craft supply
Other: pearls; Copic markers; corner rounder punch - SU

Bunny Love

 

Hello!  It's my turn to feature a project at Creative Inspirations Paints this week.  I love these paints, and there are soooooo many ways to use them - and on various surfaces, too - but as card-making is my first love, I went with that.  SALE ALERT!  10% off these paints during the whole month of August!

These little bunnies from DeNami were stamped on ledger patterned paper and colored with Copic markers and a white gel pen for their little behinds.  :-)  The frame and long flourish under the bunnies are stamps from Inspired By Stamping.  I cut apart two Fancy Tags Three die cuts to decorate behind the label.

Can you see the Ivory shimmer paint along one of the frame's borders?

This frame is from Sweet Stamps, and it's one of my go-to stamps.  I love it.  This time, I colored in portions of it with Chocolate shimmer paint.

The sentiment comes as one long string of words.  I inked up each word separately with a black marker and used my Stamp-a-majig to place them on three lines.

Thanks so much for joining me today!



Dimensions: 4.25" x 5.5"
Stamps: Sending You Love, Bunny Border - DeNami; Fancy Label 18 - Inspired By Stamping; Swirly Parchment Frame - Sweet Stamps
Paper: River Rock, Basic Black, Whisper White - SU; ledger paper - K & Co. Flora & Fauna Ledger
Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake - SU; Antique Linen - Ranger
Fibers: white seam binding - Zipper Stop
Other: Big Shot; Fancy Tags Three, Scalloped Circle, Labels 18 dies - Spellbinders; pearl; white gel pen; Chocolate, Ivory shimmer paints - Creative Inspirations Paints; Copic markers; black marker - SU