Retirement and my baby

I'm almost ashamed to post this card it's so unremarkable, however it was for one of the nicest executives I've had the pleasure of working with in my 40 years with this company, so I just had to put it up. 

Nicholas is one of those rare executives in Corporate America that is not driven by a co-workers title.  He is always pleasant to everyone, from the top dog right on down to the file and mailroom clerks. 

He retired last Friday and I already miss his "good morning" hellos' which he greeted me with each day as he walked by my desk. 

He and his lovely wife are planning on spending time with their grand kids and doing a bit of travel.  In true fun form, Nicholas is sure his wife will eventually get tired of him being under foot all the time and will more than likely send him back in to the job market, if only to get something part-time.  He suspects we'll all see him greeting people at the Walmart doors.  LOL

I hardly think so, anyone would be lucky to add Nicholas to their work force, even on a part-time basis or better yet as a mentor for some of the arrogant college grads who know nothing about anything but think they should be the CEO after paying their dues for a whole 6 months.  UGH!


Now on to some more fun stuff .......
My son and his lovely partner had some professional pictures taken of them with the baby.  He sent them to the family in a .pdf file so we could look them over and decide which one we wish to have, so the quality is horrible.  I converted two of them in Photoshop, but even my mega program couldn't clean up the issues, but that's ok because I only needed to be able to see them well enough to make my order.  It was a tough decision, but I went with all of them.   Use to do that same thing when I had pictures made of the boys when they were little.  It just seemed wrong to leave any of them behind. :)

So here are my sad temporary pictures of Austin, Mommy and Daddy until I get the real deal. 

I love having all three of them in a picture. I think I'll get this one in 8x10 for my desk.  This is a lovely picture of Vicky, she is so very beautiful, she looks like she's about 16 in this picture but she is 28.  Jeff is 33.  There is another one of her and Austin that is go beautiful it makes me want to weep. 

This is my absolute favorite.  I want this one in 11x14 and its going in my living room.  Not sure where, but I'll make a spot.  It's wonderful that the background is green because it will go nicely with the colors in my home. 

There are also some gorgeous pictures of Vicky and Jeff holding Austin individually (the one that makes me watn to weep is in that group) but I'll have to share those once I get the actual pictures, could be a few months since they will be coming from Australia. 

Thank you for stopping in and hope everyone is well.

Carole

A touch of music ...

It's so rare that I get to post one of my cards that has turned out just as I envisioned it.

I believe this card goes back to a Less Is More challenge in August which called for neutrals or maybe browns.  I found this one stuffed under my grid pad and there were brown die leaves and several different punched flowers in Soft Suede.  I'm thinking it was the flower that stalled this card originally but since I don't have that barrier, I quickly saw this card another way. 

I really need to take a photography class because I can't seem to capture cards very well.  Plus my lighting still isn't right, no matter how many blogs I read that share how they set up their light boxes.  LOL  What doesn't show up in the photo is that the music sheet is flowing out of a tear in that top layer as are the die and leaves.  In the photo it looks like its all just plopped on top of the card.

I tried to use Certainly Celery card stock for the leaves but it was very over-powering so I dug through my scrap drawer and found some DP with various shades of green; it works perfectly. The little flower was made using SU's new small scallop punch (I believe its 1.25 inches) which is really a great size for making this type of a flower.  The card stock, leaf and banner dies, sentiment and EF are all SU as well.  The music stamp is from Stampendous and I hope it's not upside down.  For that matter I have no clue what that song is and I hope Gretchen doesn't know how to read music or else I might be a bit red in the face when she gets this card.  The bitty bits of pink bling are from a flower pack that SU had on special this last spring; I gave the flowers to a friends daughter and kept the bling. The lengths I go through for my bling addiction ...... so sad. 

So yet another card that was started and set aside is complete. 

Thank you for stopping by ... I hope to get home at a decent hour tonight and begin visiting all the people I follow. 

Carole

Dragonfly..

This card was originally a one-layer-card for one of the Less Is More challenges in September or October.  The theme was wings; or at least I think it was. 

 

Since I obviously didn't get the card posted by the deadline, I decided to cut it up and made a layered card.  I have to admit, I do this to all my OLC challenge cards.

I used Pool Party, Soft Sky, Lucky Limeade and Certainly Celery for the colors.  I think there might even be a bit of Cool Caribbean in there.  The dragonfly was stamped in Versafine Black first; then the Penny Black script background stamp was added using VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder.  I dabbed the background stamp with the VersaMark instead of inking up the whole thing so only a partial image would take. Once the BG was dry I added the various colors and some ultrafine black glitter to the dragonfly (which makes it pop very nicely IRL) and that was pretty much the original OLC.

This version is mounted on Pool Party card stock.  The sentiment was cut from Stampin Up's Bitty Banners die and then gently inked with a hint of color. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I have several more cards that still need a bit of work; in all cases I can't remember what my original idea was so I'm muddling through to get them finished.  LOL

Carole

Card Candy Creations

My friend Linda and Stampin Up! demo over at Olive Stamps had a class last month called Card Candy.  This was a really fun class where we made embellishments to be used to make our own creations at a later date.  The class is more to make these card candy sets to give away to friends so they can make their own designs with the candy. 

However if I did that to any of my friends (except Linda) they'd just hand it back and ask me to do it for them.  LOL  So I saved us all a step and below are the cards I made from the Card Candy stash.

I admit that I blew past this set when the catalog first came out, but I love it now.  It really makes for soem very CAS cards.

All supplies are Stampin Up with the exception of the big pearl on the second card.  Bling and pearl were colored with Sharpie markers. 

The worst of the budget season is behind us now and I have actually been in my craft room for two days sorting through all the cards I've started over the last two months, but didnt' get around to finishing, or posting.  So there will be a burst for posts for the next week or so as I finish up those cards and try and figure out which challenges inspired them. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope everyone is well. 

Carole

Meet my first grandbaby

UPDATE:

Introducing Austin James

The kids haven't decided on a name yet but they are down to two choices: Spencer and Austin.  I vote for Spencer but my son told me it doesn't count because I'm not in Australia.  I guess only those in close proximity actually get a vote.  LOL

Spencer/Austin was born September 9th
He weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds 9 ounces and is 22.5 inches long.

Mom and baby are both doing well and that is saying something becauseVicky is a petite woman. 

I am thrilled beyond measure and am hoping to have more, and better, pictures soon. 

"Just give me a second, I'll wake up.  I promise."

Love this face:  "Who are you and why are you making those ridiculous noises?"

Count down 3...2...1

I really love this weeks Less Is More challenge. The recipe is to use a count system of 3-2-1. In total, there should only be 6 things on the card.  Now I've seen a few where the words are individually counted and others where it's counted as one under "sentiment".  I decided I best stick with counting the individual words just to be safe. :) 

The first was done this afternoon but has morphed from the original idea into this.  I started out using SU's Medallion stamp on yellow card stock and colored in the solid white areas with various yellows and oranges.  That was a huge failure.  So I switched gears and instead of using pencils on white craft ink, I selected an outline stamp and colored the leaves in the same color tones as the base using markers.  The idea is from a gorgeous card on Pinterest which used a blue base and flower stamp.  Unfortunately I didn't pin it and now I don't know who to thank for the technique.  :(

This second card was my first idea on Saturday morning however I didn't post it because Lynne had a lovely card using the same idea (Banners) so I tossed this idea to the side. Lynne's card is very pretty and elegant and includes a lovely flower stamp, while mine is very simple using only DP to give the card color. 

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***


This last card is not part of this weeks LIM challenge, but from a few weeks ago.  This was one of those cards I made then had to give it 24 hours before I decided if I liked it or not; then real life got in the way and I missed the deadline.  I think this was a OLC challenge that called for "fur or feathers".  Since almost all of my animal stamps are birds, this was an easy choice.  LOL

Thank you for stopping by. 

The magic number three....

The card I'm submitting is the third one created for this weeks Less Is More challenge.  The second Saturday of the month at LIM is the One Layer Card and this weeks twist is to work in "threes". 

The card to the left is the final version of card number three.  I like how this one turned out so I'm not going to even pop over to LIM and see if someone has used the same set or had the exact layout. 

That's what happened to the first card which was three balloons and a sentiment.  Just before I went to post it I took a look at the other submissions and saw another card almost exactly like mine so I tossed it aside and started over.   

The second card was really cute too until I splashed water all over it and the ink ran.  That one had more than twice the piercing as the one above plus some dry embossing so I didn't even try to save it or redo it.  

The picture below is the same card as above which was taken before I added the faux stitching to the piercing.  I like the top version better even though the stitching didn't turn out very smooth.    

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Bright Blossoms, Just Believe
Card stock: Whisper White
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Real Red, Stazon Black
Bling - SU! rhinestones colored with Sharpie marker


Thank you so much for stopping by and I'll be playing catch-up on comments from last weeks challenge as soon as I finish the chores I ignored this morning.  ;)

ETA:

This card was made for todays Featured Stamper challenge at Splitcoast and after I finished it I realized it worked for the LIM challenge as well.  :D

~Carole

Golden Ornaments

This week at  Less Is More the challenge is to use gold. 

Thankfully I had a bit of gold embossing powder left so I could play along.  This is one of the many sets that has never seen ink, which now it has.  :)   I might go back and add a bit of bling to the front ornament, it might be just the touch to make this card pop. 

Thats it for now, thank you for stopping by. 
~Carole

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Come to Bethlehem
Ink: Versa Mark
Accs: Gold EP, gold cord, gold cardstock
All supplies are SU though a couple are long since retired. 

Less is More plus a few

This weeks challenge at Less is More was an inspiration piece using the LIM logo header.  Not much to say about this one except that I think it turned out rather nice.  It's one of those cards that can work in different colors and still be pretty.  Plus its generic enough that a number of sentiments would work.  

 

Yesterday was the 4th of July holiday so I took the time to finish a few of the other LIM challenges that have been piling up on my craft table.  There are a few more left in the box that maybe I'll get to this weekend.  Maybe .... LOL

This first one didn't require any additional work yesterday, I didn't post it the week of the challenge because I wrecked it at the last minute.  I wanted to make the "Celebrate" stand out so I tried to outline it with a Going Gray marker.  I should have left it alone.  The challenge that week was to use Red, White and Blue.   

This next card was for the baby card challenge.  I didn't finish this one by the deadline.  :(

This last one was the Something Shinny challenge.  I think I actually submitted a card that week and this was a second one I was working on.  The JOY is cut out of the card stock and the shinny metal is behind it.  It's a very pretty card IRL but kind of hard to capture in a picture.

Thank you for stopping by - if anyone has a good joke please share.  I could use a good laugh about now.  I lost my diamond ring and it's depressing the hell out of me.  It was made from the diamonds that were in my old wedding set and I'm just sick over the loss.  :( 

 - Carole

Supplies: I'm Here For You  (SU Only)
Stamps: Elizabeth, Blooming With Kindness
Card Stock: Basic Black, Crumb Cake
Ink: Stazon; Soft Suede and Crumb Cake Markers
Acc: Pearls colored with Sharpie Marker

Supplies: Celebrate
Card Stock: Shimmery White, Pacific Point
Ink: Stazon; Pacific Point, Real Red and Going Gray markers
Acc: SU Postage Stamp and Multi heart punch; SU Dazzling Glitter; ribbon unknown

Supplies: JOY
Card Stock: Cardinal Red, Whisper White
Acc: Memory Box die, Spellbinders metal sheet (old); ribbon unknown

Supplies:  Sweet Baby  (SU Only)
Stamp:  Itty Bitty Banners, Baby carriage from really OLD SU set (I can't find the name of it but if I do I'll update the post)
Card Stock: Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Ink: Stazon, Pixie Pink, Soft Sky
Markers: Pink Pirouette, Pretty In Pink, Pixie Pink, Lucky Limeade, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Going Gray, Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa
Acc: Ribbon, twine (Lucky Limeade), button; polka dot EF, Uniball white pen (for the dots on the pink layer);  Bitty Banners Framelits. 


PS - I just have to say, LOVE SUs framelits, I'm so happy they are finally jumping on the band wagon.  :)

Piecing and Frosty Cupcake

This weeks Less Is More challenge was paper piecing and for me, that really was a challenge.  I struggle with piecing because I just plain suck at cutting things out by hand.  However, though this card isn't fancy or awe inspiring, I am very pleased how it came out.  :)

This card is final result of three tries that I worked on over the week.  The first one was flowers but it was too detailed so I had to abandon that idea.  The next one was a cute little duck with a hat and umbrella ..... awful is too mild a word to describe that disaster.  But thankfully this last one was easy enough that after a dozen tries I finally got that wrapper cut out perfectly.  YAY! 

The layout is from a really nice sketch challenge from SCS that was posted a few weeks back and I kept it in the back of my mind.  When the cupcake turned out so well I thought it should be the highlight of the card and this sketch was a perfect showcase. 

I'm posting this from work (no one is here yet) and will be very busy tonight visiting all the other blogs later this evening.  Thank you for stopping by.



Stamps: SU Crazy for Cupcakes; Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock/paper: SU White and DP (unknown design it was from the scrap bin)
Ink: Stazon black; Melon Mambo
Embellishments/tools: Cuttlebug EF; Spellbinders Oval dies; Stickles glitter and pearl accents; Kaisercraft rhinestones. 

Celebrate with color ....

I have to admit that I have never cared for the whole pennant fad that has been part of card making for the last year or more.  I still don't like the triangle pennants, but I have come to like the longer banner style pennants.

So here is my attempt which is a birthday card for my niece.  She'll be 9 in early August so I thought I'd get it out of the way, and for once, not be late. 

I'm still on the fence about that bit of fringe I added to the corner of the sentiment. I may remove it and glitter it up a bit so it have some sparkle, that way its more like a firecracker. 

The die used around the sentiment is one of four that is in the set called Apothecary Accents from SU!'s new Framelits line (which I LOVE).  Also new is the fabulous piercing pack by SU!  If you have a list going for the new SU catalog, the dies and paper piercing pack are a definite must have.   

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.  The weather here in Texas has been humid the last two days which makes it hard on my asthma, but other than that its really been nice out.  Thank you for stopping by.

Carole


Stamp: SU! SAB Outlined Occasions
Paper: Whisper white; Coll Caribbean; MME Fly a Kite
Ink: Stazon; Summer Sun, Cool Caribbean, Luscious Lime

Reaching for the Mojo.

This little card is for this weeks Less is More Challenge which was to include something shinny. 

Though it's a bit small, the bling is in the center of the flower. I left the senitment off because the lady I made this for likes the option of using cards for various occasions.  This is one of four that will be in the pack, each with a different arrangement of DP and flower color. 

I have a couple more card ideas in mind that I might add to this weeks challenge.  Its great to be back in my craft room again and I'm beginning to feel my Mojo resurface. 

Thank you for stopping by, your comments are much appreciated and help me improve. 



Supplies:
Stamp set: Broght Blossoms (SU!)
Ink: Lucky Limeade; Pool Party
Paper: Misc white; Memory Box Viola DP
Rhinestone is from SU colored with a Sharpie marker. 

Casing Linda

This beauty was cased from a lovely card made by  my friend Linda Keal, over at Olive Stamps, for a class she held a few weeks back.  She hasn't posted it on her site or at  Splitcoast so I'll try to describe the couple changes I made.  Since it's only a few it should be easy.

The changes:

Replaced Wedding Sweet stamp set with Bliss;
Used two ribbon leaves insead of four;
Added pearls to the flower centers;
Changed the sentiment;
Changed from a single layer base card to a raised panal on the base card. 

Basically, at first glance one might not be able to tell Linda's lovely creation from this one.  Other than I think her flowers turned out much nicer.  :)

I especially love this card because of the pink flowers.  Linda's rarely uses pink and this one just jumped right out to me.  :)

Whenever I'm in a jam for a card I run over to Linda's blog and see what she has that I can case.  I always let her know I'm casing something she has made; and in fact that is how we met and became friends.  If you get the chance, please drop by Linda's blog .... Olive Stamps .... and take a look at some of her other beautiful creations. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Bliss; Teeny Tiny Wishes; Clearly for You (stamped on the Pool Party C/S)
Ink: Crumb Cake; Pool Party; Early Expresso; Regal Rose
Card Stock: Crumb Cake; Pool Party, Regal Rose
Embellishments/tools: Ornament punch; Striped EF; pearls; vintage ribbon; hemp twine

Creative Elements in the round

This round card was intended for a Less is More challenge from a couple weeks back.  The challenge was to make a card in any shape other than square or rectangle.  I didn't submit this because by time it was completed I thought it was a bit much for a LIM challenge.

The set is SU!s Creative Elements and Curly Sentiments (I think thats what its called); Whisper White, Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo card stock and ink.  The rhinestones are Kaiser Craft and the scallop and circle dies are Spellbinders.

The card base is the Lucky Limeade.  I folded the cardstock in half then lined it up on the scalloped die two scallops more than the half way point then cut.  It created a rounded tent card to which the Indigo and white were attached. 

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be posting a number of cards over the next few days from all the projects I've started over the last month and either didn't finish in time for a challenge or just plain didn't post them. 

CHAOS!!

The construction on the craft room and office has officially completed.  The paint is dry, the carpet in and all the wall shelving is up; now comes the hard part ..... putting it all back together. 

Looking into the craft room from the hallway

I really wanted to sort through everything and get it in perfect order before putting everything back in the units, but now I'm just hoping I can toss out some stuff as I go along and will figure out how to truly organize later ..... as in maybe over Christmas break in December.  :D  For now, everything is going back in the craft room in any open space I can find or make.  Very little is organized at this point with the exception of the new shelving unit behind the craft table. 

The office will definitely be done by this weekend.  It only required the books going back into the shelves and since I don't put books in any order (other than book series) it has been the easiest room to restore.  The only hold up in there is getting my larger books put up on those top shelves which requires climbing a ladder.  Between my vertigo and bad back, I don't climb ladders anymore so I have to depend on the kindness of my friends to come by and help.  Thankfully I have been blessed with some pretty awesome friends. 

Come Saturday, no matter what, I WILL be back in the craft room making a card .... any card ... even a one-layer-card.  It may take extra effort to find all the needed supplies since everything is just tossed willy-nilly in there, but I refuse to go another weekend without crafting in my own space.  So that will be my end goal for this week: make one card in remodeled craft room.  How hard can that be?  Really?  LOL  LOL   

I hope everyone is well and having a great spring. 

New shelving unit behind craft table: The large containers on the floor contain all my 12x12 papers and card stocks.  I still have to label them, but of them are Basic Grey DPs, one is SU! cardstock and the last one is SU! DP.  The small white boxes will eventually be covered with some bright DPs and will contain various embellishments.  Several have already been filled with SU! supplies.   

Looking across craft table at new wall unit.
PS - The painting of Captain Jack Sparrow was made for me by a wonderful girl at a fan site we both belong to.  It is truly a nice piece of art and will get the frame it deserves soon.  

SU! punch storage hanging on the back of the closet door.  I will mount another one on the wall next to the door unit. 

The card stock bins and jars are set, all other items need to be sorted through.  The bins hold my SU! card stock with the exception of two bins which have various weight non SU card stocks and one bin with all my Bazzill stock. 

The efla drawer unit used to run linear starting behind the craft table. With the removal of the closet I pushed it down and around the corner.  This leaves more room behind the craft table and makes the space seem much bigger than it really is.  I have some of those "floating" shelves to put up on the walls behind these units.   

I'm going to be a Grandmother!!!!

  **insert huge happy face here**

My youngest son and his significant other are expecting a baby in Aug/Sep and he called last night with the news that it is a boy.  This will be my very first grandchild!!!  I found out about the baby a few months ago, but I must not have mentioned it in any previous post; so I've decided that this is an event deserving of its very own post. 

I met Vicky last summer when she came to the US for a visit and she is just lovely.  She has been doing well during the pregnancy with some morning sickness but nothing too horrid.

They live in Sydney, Australia and will remain there, which sadly means I'll watch my grandson grow up via photographs.  :(  Vicky is a British subject and has already established residency in AUS; Jeff is working on his.  Wait ... did that make sense?  Aren't Australians' British subjects too?  I think a brush up on my international knowledge is in dire need. 

Anyway, I don't have pictures of Vicky or Vicky and Jeff together so instead I'll post one of my very favorite baby pictures of Jeff.  This was taken Easter Sunday, April 1981 when he was 7 months old.  We sat in the living room of my Mom's home and watched the older kids hunt for eggs through the window.  My Ex took this picture and another of Jeff and I from the outside looking in.  James (my ex) had a really great eye for photography.  I think he missed his calling.  :)
They grow up so fast ...............................

Almost Done!!

The craft room is painted, the new light fixture is in, the window seat has been repaired and the carpet is on order. I was going to put in carpet tiles but when I checked them out they were very thin. Since I stand while creating, the thought of standing on a cement floor with a quarter inch of hard loop floor covering did not appeal to my bad back. So I went with a nice thick nylon carpet with a top grade thick pad under it. If its anything like what I put in my bedroom years ago, I'll probably want to sleep on it. LOL!! Carpet will go in by mid week and after that I can begin setting the room to rights again.    YAY!!

 My camera battery is getting low and I can't find the charger in all this chaos so I was not able to get more than a couple pictures before it gave out. :( This will be it for the updates until I find that charger.

This first picture is taken from the closet door looking back to where the actual construction was done. If you look at the floor near the edge of the door, those cut out areas of the carpet is where the office closet used to be.

This is a picture of the window seat that is in the craft room. It has been buried in junk for a year. I'm not sure what I will do with this little space, but it definitely will not be filled back up with junk. Also, the windows look dirty but it's actually the screens I have on my home. They are thick black insolated screens which help keep the house cool in summer and make looking out of the windows a bit iffy.

This picture was taken from the hallway looking back into the craft room.

Below are a couple of pictures of all my craft room suppies and furniture stacked up in the garage. Only the craft table remained in the room during the process since it was easy to move about. Sadly this isn't all of it; there is a very large stack of craft stuff in the master bedroom that could be ruined by the extreme heat of Texas if stored in the garage.

Progress Report

I was excited last night to see the closet was out and everything is ready to go up. So I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures of the craft room progress.

The first two pictures below were taken in the craft room with the closet area that was removed colored in pink. I took these pictures after everything was hauled into the garage. The craft table is small and light enough to be moved out of the way so it remains in the room. Thank goodness because there is not much room left in the garage for anything else; though I still have room for my car. If I remember, I'll take a picture of the garage when I get home this evening and add that to this post.

The first and last pictures are after the closet was removed; the top taken from the office looking into the craft room and the bottom one the reverse.

I selected the paint color last night; it's a very pale shade of yellow with a hint of green in it. Which I guess it not a true yellow and probably explains why I like it. :)

Still no decision on the floor covering, but if I want this project completed by the end of April I'll have to make up my mind before this weekend. At first I thought I'd just put it off until the summer, but the idea of having to move everything into the garage a second time kills my natural tendency towards procrastination. ;)

Thanks for popping in and I hope everyone is well.

Remodeling My Craft Room

Thought I should pop in and make a post to let people know that I'm here but not making cards right now. The reason being that my craft room is stacked up in the garage while I do some remodeling. I have a question at the end of this post, so please feel free to skip past my rambling if you wish and please take a minute to read the question and hopefully help me pick a color for the new room.



I'm working on the two small bedrooms in the back of the house which are my office and craft room. Between these two rooms is a closet that takes up a lot of space in my craft room and has (or I should say had) nothing but boxes of junk in it. By removing the closet I gain 4 feet of space (or just shy of) to the craft room and a nice large wall space that can be used for floor to ceiling book cases in the office. YAY!!

The floorplan above gives a general idea of what I'm having done. The drawing isn't to scale and in fact in the before picture the rooms look to be almost the same size; however that is not the case. The room I use as my office is very narrow and long at 8ft2in by 11ft. The craft room is currently 10ft by 9ft8in but once the remodel is finished it will be a really nice 10ft by 13ft5in.

The expected completion date on the project is April 20th; but thats only for the general contractor work and finished painting. Once he leaves the flooring will go in so I'm anticipating having the rooms ready to redress by the end of April.

If anyone has seen the pictures of my craft room before this remodel, then you know that my work table, shelves, walls and drawer units are white. I was thinking that instead of painting the walls white again, I'd add color. I thought I'd be daring and go with bold bright colors like Cool Caribbean; or Green Galore; maybe even Pixie Pink. Then of course I could go with Blushing Bride or Certainly Celery. If Island Indigo wasn't so dark that would be on the list to. ;)


QUESTION: If your craftroom furniture was all white; would you go with a bold color on the walls, or a pale color? The space will still be rather small and the lighting is limited to one window, one overhead light and two table lamps.

PS - I'm going with carpet floor tiles in the craft room so whatever the wall color is, I plan to match it in the floor coloring.

Happy Anniversary Less Is More!!!

This week marks the first anniversay for my favorite blogspot challenge, Less Is More. The very fist LIM challenge was a color challenge so this week the Divas' have selected a color challenge to honor the anniversary. Their color choice is Aqua. Since I don't have a anything that is actaully labeled "aqua", I went with my "best guess" or in other words "this kinda of looks like aqua".



My best guess lead me to one of my all time favorite SU colors, Cool Caribbean. It was on the very first "In Color" group a few years back and I really hated to see that one go. Pulling out the CC really inspired me this week so I have three cards to share. This first one is my favorite and is actually for LIM and SCS Featured Stamper Challenge.

I love how this one turned out, and as usual I don't think the picture does it justice. The subtle blue shading on the raised embossing shows up very nicely in IRL; and completely missing from the picture is the beautiful shimmer that covers the entire card. At first I wasn't too thrilled with the black ink for the sentiment but everything else I tried looked far worse so I settled on the black.

This next card is very CAS. At one point I had a CC layer under the main panel but it was distracting and took away from the simplicity of the overall card; so I quicly dumped that idea. I might have ... just a little bit ... gone overboard on the bling but this stamp screamed at me ... non stop ... to add more, so I complied. Plus I'm addicted to bling. LOL


This last one is my least favorite. It is lacking in some way, but I just can't figure it out. I only just finished this one so maybe tomorrow I'll see what it is, or change my mind and like it. :D



Thank you kindly for stopping by.


Supplies:
Butterfly:
Whisper White, Cool Caribbean card stock; Cool Caribbean and black ink; Memory Box Die; Sixxiz embossing folder; Kaisercraft rhinestones; Smooch - Vanilla.

"thanks"
Whisper White textured card stock; Cool Caribbean ink; Wedding Sweet and Thank You Kindly stamps (SU); Kaisercraft rhinestones

Flower Heart:
Shimmery White and Cool Caribbean card stock; Cool Caribbean ink; Memory Box die; Just So Sayings stamp set (SU); Kaisercraft rhinestones.

Where has all the mojo gone ........

This card is for this weeks Less Is More challenge which is a sketch challenge. The Divas placed rules which were: must be rectangle, band must stay in position and it had to be landscape. I managed to get those correct, however I didn't place the sentiment in the same spot as the sketch indicated. It's automatic for me; I hate seeing a sentiment dumped into a large open white space. I have to admit, if I'm going to mess up a sketch, it's always the sentiment placement. :( I also messed this up by trying to add shading to the trees with an old olive marker. I should have used chalk, it would have been more subtle.

That said, I'm just pleased to be back in my craft room. I'm struggling like crazy to create things and since last Friday only two projects have survived the trash bin (this being the second one). It's like my mojo decided it was taking a hike since I wasn't using it. Now I need it back and it's no where to be found. LOL I've missed 7 weeks of crafting and challenges (here and at SCS) so if my limited missing mojo ever returns, I might back track and give some of the missed challenges a go.

Thanks for stopping in.

Supplies:
Stamp: SU Touch of Kindness
SU Card Stock: Whisper White Textured; Soft Sky; Lucky Limeade
Ink: Basci Black
Accs: Star Dust Stickles; Old Olive Marker
Die: Memory box and MFT