Prisma Flower Girl

I bought a 72 piece set of Prismacolor Pencils today!!! I can't believe the difference in the Prismas and my other pencils -- night and day. I did have a problem though. The tips kept breaking off as I was sharpening them. I used the nice metal pencil sharpener that came with the set. The ones that broke usually broke more than once. I didn't sharpen them all (just the ones that I used on this image). So, if anyone knows of something I was doing wrong, let me know.

This was my first try with the Prismas. If you look closely, you can see the order in which I colored each section. I did the skin first, then the dress and basket. I then went to the hair and it definitely turned out the best. I did the flowers last and even managed to get a little bit of shading on the one in her hair. I like this image to practice because it has some larger areas to practice the shading. I'm going to print it out again a little larger and try again. I saw a prisma tutorial (I think it was on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog). I'm going go back and take another look at it now that I have my new pencils.

I used the free digi stamp that Bee Crafty is offering this week. She is having a challenge with her free download. If you use this stamp to create a card, you will be eligible to win her next digi stamp for free! You can enter more than once before 4-11 so I'll have plenty of time to make her prettier. I think her name is Annie!!!

Also, if you post her banner on your blog, you will receive a free Easter digi stamp. I also uploaded it to my sidebar in case you need to find it later.

I used the sketch from the Stamp Something Challenge. Since I'm a newbie to card making, it's much easier to get the creative juices flowing if I don't have to worry about the layout. The ABC Challenge is to use glitter so I used paper from the Glitter Stack. Love this paper!!!

I'll be playing with my prismas some more tomorrow. I can't wait to see how things turn out!!!

It's supposed to rain all week so I don't think I'll be getting my deck painted anytime soon. Oh, how I hate that (heehee). If you don't know what I'm talking about, see my flutterby post from Sunday.

Blessings,

Award

I got this award from Jacilynn. I really enjoy visiting her blog because she makes such beautiful cards and gives me so much inspiration. You especially have to check out the one she made for her Mother for Mother's Day. Thanks so much for thinking of me Jacilynn. We also live in the same town, so maybe we'll run into each sometime at our LSS.

I would like to pass it on to the following people for the lovely comments and inspiration that they give me.

Sara
Danni
Coralie
Marianne

and back to Jacilynn.

Little House on the Prairie just came so that means it's 2:00 am and time to go to bed!!!

Blessings,

Flutterby Friendship

It's been quite a busy weekend. My sister and I cleared everything off of my deck. I can't believe how much stuff is on my deck. I have one reclining lawn chair, a vintage white iron table with 4 chairs (ice cream parlor style), a little table, 5 flower pots, an old window that I'm going to do something crafty with, and my bicycle. I thinks that's all. It's all sitting on my back lawn right now.

Then we went to the rental store and rented a pressure washer. We unloaded it from my truck (they are very heavy) and played around with the first one for about an hour but we couldn't get it to work. Called the rental store back and they said to bring it back and trade it for another. We were attempting to get it loaded back into the truck but it was just too heavy for us to lift. Some men were just leaving a neighbors house and asked if we needed help. Thanks goodness there are nice people in the world!!!

We got back and they tested everything with another pressure washer and the nozzle wand thingy was broken. They gave us a different washer and a different hose and wand. Once we got a good washer the job went pretty well. There is a lot of pressure coming from that hose so we switched off so our arms wouldn't get too tired. With all the loose paint off, now I will be able to paint it. We were able to get the second one in the truck because it had handles on both sides so we could lift it easier. It still took everything we had to lift it.

Then that night, I was in bed and at exactly 1:50, I heard a very strange sound like a truck speeding down the road or something. A few seconds later, I heard a huge gust of wind. I heard things blowing around outside and everything. I was really quite scared for awhile. Only a few miles from my house, huge pine trees were blown right off their roots. It was a pretty amazing storm. They said it was just a cold front coming through but it had 55 mile an hour winds. I just live across the freeway from the airport so those were the winds in my neighborhood.

I made this card for Flutter By Wednesday. The challenge was a sketch and also to include a butterfly. Danni is giving away some beautiful blog candy with the challenge this week.

The patterned paper is Basic Grey Porcelain. I usually put the flower on the left side but I put it on the right side today because it would have hidden the butterfly on the paper. It is the Flutterby Challenge after all. I need to start stamping the sentiment before I put the card together. I smudged it a bit when I stamped it.

And there is a little butterfly bead in the center of the flower. I also inked the flowers a bit with some pink chalk ink.

Everybody hope for some nice weather so I can paint the deck and get all the stuff off my lawn.

Blessings to everyone,

Pink Saturday

The Idaho Steelheads, our local hockey team, is hosting a fundraiser, “Pink in the Rink," to help women get the testing they need to prevent breast cancer. All funds raised will go to help women who can’t afford life-saving mammograms or other testing procedures. They are doing this in conjunction with St. Luke’s Mountain States Tumor Institute (MSTI).

Beverly at How Sweet the Sound hosts Pink Saturday every week. This is a very fun event. Each of us post a picture of something pink on our blog on Saturday and try to visit as many of the other blogs as possible. I'm not sure how many participate but it is in the hundreds. Big thanks to Beverly; she lists all of the participants on her blog each week so we will no where to visit. What a huge job!

Blessings,

Mother's Day Card

I made this card for my Mom. I think she'll really like Sara Kay's Rosalie's Bicycle. I used water colors to color Rosalie. The daffodils are from a bush of daffodils that I bought at the craft store. I deconstructed them and put them back together using a brad. They look as adorable as I thought they would when I saw them in the store.

I used Laura's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You. After I made the card, while I was looking through the challenges, I realized it also fits Creative Card Crew which is to use warm colors. Chrisma Cardz was to use one of your favorite things. Pink is my favorite color and I also love the combination of pink and yellow. It is so springy.

Not much else happening here today. I might make another card. I'm going to lunch tomorrow with an old boyfriend. We have remained friends and it will be nice to see him. Then I'm going to Archivers. They are having a free make and take card. It's always fun to make one of their cards.

Blessings,

New Candy

Ida is having a blog candy giveway to celebrate becoming a DT memeber for CCC.

Blessings,

Do You Recognize Him?

It's Spiderman! I sure hope you could tell. I made this card for a soon to be 4 year old in my sister's Sunday School class. He likes Spiderman. I have to make another Spiderman card for May. I'm going to wait and see how this one goes over before I make another.

All the cuts are from the George Cricut cartridge. I cut out a 3-1/2" red oval and then drew the web on with a fine tip marker. It looks like the center of the web is his nose (hehe). Then I made two Ds in shadow in black and cut out white in shadow/blackout for the eyes. The blue oval is 3-1/2" shadow and the black one is 4".


I used this picture to design the Spiderman. I'll do a few things differently next time but all in all, I think it's OK.

Blessings to everyone,

I'm a Very Lucky Lady

I can't belive how lucky I've been the last couple of days. I won three blog candys!!! Can you belive it?
Suzanne at The Card Garden blog needed inspiration to make a couple of Easter cards. She asked for inspiration in the way of a challenge and she chose my challenge and I won this Saturday!!! I don't have any Easter stamps so this is great.

Lori of by Lori Designs is one of the Pink Elephant design team members. They had a blog hop this past weekend and I one her candy yesterday!!! I really needed some sentiment stamps.

Then this morning I went to Jak's blog and I had won this pile of stamps!!! I can see some flowers and a leaf. I don't know what else is in their but I'm so excited to see.

If you want a chance at the luck, I have all the candy that I have found listed on my side bar by date it will be drawn. When the draw has been done, I delete it.

Since I have been so lucky with the giveaways, I'm going to be hosting one myself. It will include a challenge if you want a second chance to win (my fingers typed 'sin' the first time [hehe]). I'll post it in a couple of weeks!!!

Blessings to everyone,

Angel Thanks

I made this card for a fellow member of the Idaho Old Time Fiddlers to say thank you for something she did for the group. I have had the idea in mind for a couple of days then as I was working on it, I realized that it followed the Creative Card Crew's second challenge. Their challenge is to make a card using no designer paper.

I used a Cuttlebug folder for the background paper(it's light blue but you can't really tell from the pic). I stamped and embossed the image and sentiment. I don't know whose stamp it is because some manufacturer's don't put their name on them. I'm starting to write names on my new ones so I know where they came from.

Let me tell you a little bit about the Idaho Old Time Fiddlers. The Idaho group is part of an international organization. We go to retirement and care centers and play for the residences. It is really great to bring some joy to their days. I am the co-chairman this year. I'm responsible for organizing and being MC for our performances during the daytime. We have six different centers that we go to each month. I don't play the fiddle; I play the mandolin and sing.

I am also the historian, which involves scrapbooking what happens throughout the year (this is my 3rd year at that). I've been slacking on that job because I keep forgetting my camera but I have a friend who has taken a lot of pics. Then over the summer I will prepare the scrapbook to present in September.

I'll post some pictures of one of our performances when I remember the camera; maybe tomorrow. Well, I guess that would be today since it's past midnight.

Blessings to everyone,

By the way, does anyone have any good, clean jokes that I could tell the elderly. I'm always needing a good joke to start the show. You can either leave a comment or email me. My email address is on my profile page. Thanks!!!

Jump Girl for Copics

Charmed Cards is hosting an awesome giveaway of 72 Copic Markers. I'm not going to tell you that you need to do and I'm certainly not going to encourage you to enter!!!

Just kidding!!! Here's the link. But I really, really, really want to win these. If I don't win, I'm going to have to get these fit into my budget soon. Just think how cute this card would be if I had used Copics instead of pencils.

Their requirements are easy. Use a stamped or downloaded image that you have colored. That's it!!! If you use a Charmed Cards & Crafts download you get an extra entry. They have some very cute downloads. I tried to download a set of Holly & Madison today but for some reason their site wouldn't accept my credit card. So I used the free download to make my card.

I used the sketch from the Lili of the Valley Challenge blog. Since a lot of challenge blogs are celebrating spring this week, it also follows Crafty Creations Challenges (spring), ABC Challenge (flower), Stamp Something (think spring). That's five challenges with one card. And I was only trying for two.

The colors didn't turn out very springy but the image sure is. What's better than dancing in the rain in a mellow spring storm? I need to start picking out the paper before I color the image, I guess.

Blessings,

Butterfly Smile

The Pink Elephant is having a blog hop this weekend. They are sponsoring fun games, challenges and tutorials; and that's just Saturday. It lasts through Sunday so head on over there and have some fun.

I made this card for their challenge. They wanted us to make something springy. I used my Cuttlebug with a Quickutz die to make the butterflies (they're my favorite right now) and the Walking in My Garden Cricut cartridge to cut the little flower strip and sentiment. All the paper is Basic Grey Porcelain (also my new favorite). You can't see them very well in the pict but I put little pink gemstones in the center of each yellow flower on the strip.

I need to start taking pictures outside now that Spring has arrived. They will probably turn out better.

I have a couple of projects that I need to do tomorrow (I guess it will be today after I get a good nights sleep) so I'll have at least three things for your tomorrow.

Blessings to everyone,

Happy 2nd Birthday Scott!!!

It was my great-nephew, Scott's, Birthday party today!!!

This is him opening the present I gave him. I gave him a Golden Book of Bible stories and a Thomas the Train play set. Since I have started cardmaking, I have been putting bookplates in the front of books that I give to the kids. I sat down at the craft table today and couldn't get it done. My hands were just shaking so much (medication related) so I just wrote a little note and signed it.

I had a pic of him blowing out the candles but I guess I didn't get it uploaded. Next time I'll double check. Still getting used to Mr. Blogger. Here he is eating his cake!!! Love the chocolatey face.

I couldn't resist putting this one in. It is me with my neices youngest. He is 8 months old. Ya, my hair is shorter and I'm a little (or a lot) older than my blog photo. I''ve been through a lot the last couple of years and it really aged me. I cut my hair last summer because some of it had fallen out (med related again). So I just cut it short and I'm waiting very impatiently for it to grow back. It was almost to my waist when I cut it. I'll have to take a new photo for my blog photo.

When my niece was pregnant with her first child, I thought how that made me sound soooo old. When you hear "great-aunt" you think of a little old lady with her hair up in a bun. When I told her how it was gonna make me feel so old, she said, "No, you're going to be a GREAT-aunt". Meaning a really good aunt. Then it sounded OK.

I love those kids so much. I hope you enjoyed the pics. I'll get some of all her five kids at Easter so you can see the rest. Oh, I forgot, 6 kids, she has one big one: her husband. Just kidding Patrick.

Blessings to everyone,

Pink Saturday

It's another Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. It is so much fun to participate. This is only my 2nd week. I didn't get time to get around to many blogs last week because I was out of town. I plan on getting to as many as I can this week though.

I saw this picture on LoRi's blog and new I had to display it for Pink Saturday. She makes the cutest cards and papercraft items. She also makes some beautiful one of a kind plates, tea sets and other things that can be seen on her website. Her work is copyrighted so please respect that and don't make copies. She was very kind to let me use it for my Pink Saturday post. Thanks!!!

Blessings to everyone,

Altered Art

If you like altered art you should stop by Bluebirds Living in the Meadow. She is very talented and has beautiful altered art that she has done on her blog.

If that isn't enough, she is also hosting a blogoversary giveaway of wonderful altered art stuff. I have been wanting to try this for a long time but just haven't yet got the guts to do it. She has books, beads, ATC stuff, etc in her giveaway. Go by and look.

I'm going to my great-nephews 2nd birthday party tomorrow so expect some pictures. Since I don't have children, I use my neices kids for my surrogate grandchildren. They are so cute and she is such a good Mom. I would borrower my other neices kids too, but they don't live near me.

Blessings to everyone,

Springy Card

Happy first day of spring!!! I have lupines sprouting in my barrell, I have herbs poking there little heads out of the leaves I covered them with in the fall, and I have little leaf buds on my roses. It was in the 70s today. What more can you ask for?

I made this card with one of the stamps I received from Jen's birthday party. She hosted giveaways from her blog all day on her birthday. The card didn't turn out quite like I wanted but it's ok. My hands have been shaking today (one of my meds) so I had a hard time getting things glued on straight. I wish I would have put the ribbon and scallop lace thing a little lower. I haven't put a sentiment on it because I can't decide what it needs.

The stamp is Sarah Kay and I watercolored it. I'm still practicing but I get better each time. This was by far the most intricate I have done so I'm giving myself credit even though it's not perfect. I got the ribbon and MS border punch when I was in Utah last weekend. I'll be using that border punch a lot!!!



This is a pic of all the things I won at Jen's party. I can't wait to get some of these other stamps inked up. And thanks to Jen for all these wonderful prizes.

Blessings to everyone,

Sarah at Cottage Garden Studio was talking about signs of spring on her blog today. I just heard one of the first sure signs of spring: The Ice Cream Truck. Since I have no children, I don't have to worry about buying his expensive ice cream but it is sure a sign of the season to come.

Blessings to everyone,

Quilting Machine Giveaway

The You Can Make This website is celebrating a new website "You Can Quilt". To celebrate they are giving away a new Marie Osmond Quilting Machine. You have a chance to enter for the giveaway four times if you sign up for their newletter, tell them why you like quilting and/or quilts, blog about their giveaway, and add their button to your blog. That's all.

I really don't want you to enter because I want the machine for my mother (wouldn't that be a great Mom's Day present) but go ahead!!! Click on the blog button (it looks like the one above) if you want to enter.

Blessings to everyone,

Breakfast at Tiffany's Giveaway

Laurie at Indulege Yourself is giving away a unique blog candy. Everything you see in this picture. "A new copy of the video of the film, 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. They'll also receive this vintage print of a Central Park, New York landscape, from roughly the same period as the film (artist unknown.) And, as a tribute to George Peppard, I'm including this vintage, new handkerchief which is a checker pattern in a pale spring palette. Finally, the winner will receive this small bejeweled heart decoration, hand made and beaded by me, in the robin's egg blue that Tiffany & Co. made famous.

She's got it up until the March 27th so go check it out. Check out the rest of her blog; it is lovely. I really enjoy visiting her there.

Blessings to everyone,

It doesn't seem that I've been much in the mood for creating this week. I haven't been feeling that great so I just haven't gotten to the craft table. I'm feeling a lot better this evening so maybe tomorrow.

It is the grand opening of the new Joann's Super Store tomorrow so I'm going to head over there. Hopefully that will get me in the mood.

I was in Utah last week and went to Roberts (owned by Provo Craft). I bought a bunch of stuff. They had their remaining stock of quick cutz dies on for 90% off. I bought all the ones that I thought I would use. Most of them were a buck or less. I also bought a new Cricut cartridge so I want to play around with it too. Okay, now I'm talking myself into it. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures sometime.

Another Giveaway!!!

Danielle at Life One Layout at a Time is hosting another giveaway. She is giving away two (yes 2) of the new Slice Electronic Cutters. She is very generous and hosts lots of giveaways. And she tells lovely stories about her kids. I hesitated to tell you about it because I want to win and give it to my Mom for Mother's Days but I guess I need to share the wealth.

Go on over and check it out!!!