Tile Art By Donna Long

This past Christmas my dad gave my husband a wonderful tile painted by a local friend.  He had her put our name on it and we have it hanging next to our front door.

We love the tile and I just wanted to give a shout out for her.  Donna Long is her name and her web site is called Tile Art By Donna Long.  Give it a look!  The colors are more vibrant than my photo shows.

And now I'll show you another card sample I made for the local scrapbook store to promote the Pebbles Basic paper pack.

I used my Bow Easy to make the bow.  I love how elegant and neat my bows are when using it.  I did purchase mine a couple years ago so, no, I'm not a paid advertiser, just a happy customer.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts stamp set.  I think so far this is my favorite sample (other than the one I'll be making into kits).

Pebbles Basic paper packs

I've been making some samples for the AZ Scrapbooking store to promote the Pebbles Basic paper pack.  This is actually card stock that has 18 designs with 36 papers in the pack.  When folded you have a pattern on front and back and white inside.  Here's a couple ideas I came up with....

Actually this card is for me.  I have a friend back in eastern Wyoming whose daughter is graduating and I'll be mailing this card today.  I used stamps from The Angel Company, some Spellbinder dies, and my Big Shot (I'm getting better with it).

Here's a close up of the focal point. I think Cindy's daughter will like this.

You've seen this card before but I'll be making kits using this layout.  I will be changing the sentiment and colors and maybe using colored flowers instead of buttons if I can't find some that coordinate.  Kits will go for $3.00 or $4.00 each.  I've gotten a bit of interest in these and will figure out some other single card kits soon.  If you are interested in a kit I will mail and charge you through Pay Pal.  I just need to work out the details.

I have a class scheduled for next Wednesday but looks like it'll cancel.  I do have 1 kit to make that a gal wants.  My classes are changing to Thursday afternoons starting June.  Hopefully that will help.  There's a large Farmer's Market near the store on Wednesdays and we're believing that is a lot of the problem.  Keep your fingers crossed that the day change will work!

I'm still having a bit of problem with spam comments but at least they have diminished a bit.  At least I've had no porno ones lately!

WOYWW and a Crafty Mom

It's Wednesday!  Hump Day!  Middle of the week!  Oh, time to show you my desk and the opportunity to see many others desks from all around the world!  This is all possible through Julia at the Stamping Ground!  Anyway, my desk is in pretty good shape, really!  Almost neat!  Last Friday's post shows it absolutely clean!

There are some things I've recently purchased that take the main stage.  Bagettes (clear bags) on the left on top of my paper trimmer and envelopes on top of my scrap paper - gotta get them in their proper locations.  Oh, there are some new stamps between these 2 items that I want to play with.  Oh, the Bagettes are also on top my Big Shot platform as I've been using it a bit lately.  I really need to clean out my small bookcase so I'll have a place for the Big Shot instead of sitting on the floor.

Last week I "rediscovered" my scrap drawers.  All that was in them (except for the metallic paper) was put in 2 LARGE ziplock bags and taken to the local scrapbook store and from there they went into Mexico to a school for children to use.  I figured that since I haven't been in them for over a year I didn't need that paper.  Then, what scraps were on my desk got sorted and put in them.  I'm now reaching for the drawers and getting some use out of them. I have another bucket on my desk that holds the paper and scraps for upcoming classes (I have one scheduled May 22 called All Tie-d Up) so now I can get to my Cricut.  I recently purchased a cartridge called Southwest that I want to play with soon.


I promised I'd show you the card I made my Mom for Mother's Day.  I got the focal image from a blog on Pinterest but now I can't find it.  Bummer.

I think I got a bit carried away with the flowers and large rhinestones but I had to dress it up.  I used some scraps and embossed them with 2 different Cuttlebug folders.  I also used a flower punch, a leaf punch, and a 1/2" circle punch.

Here's a bit of a close up of the flowers. This card just wouldn't stop but I really like the end result!!!  Mom got a good laugh from this and I did have a nice sentiment inside.

So now click HERE to go to Julia's blog and, with coffee in hand (or tea or water or whatever) enjoy viewing desks from all over the world!

A Mooooo-ving Birthday Card and a Truck

Our youngest child, Matt, turns 30 this next week.  He loves to go 4 wheel driving and is currently building from scratch a 4 wheel drive dune buggy truck.  It's got some cool custom work on it.  He posts pics on FaceBook and I'm just in awe!  He is amazing! 

This card was quite simple and it's a layout I find fast and easy.  The truck stamp is from a Hero Arts set and I used a Spellbinder label die for the focal point.  Simple yet masculine, good card for my folks to give.  But wait until you see mine!  Ready??

I really like this cow stamp.  An E.M.T. here in our town gave me a sack of stamps and this one landed on my shelf immediately!  It's by Stamp Rosa which closed years ago. The Mooooo is stamped from an alphabet set called Simple Bet by The Angel Company and the happy birthday is from a Lawn Fawn set.  I sponged the sky and I gotta show you a close up of the grass.

I have a grass die I purchased from A|Muse Studio and I think it really added to the card. The grass is some striped scraps I had.  Isn't this hilarious?  Inside I hand wrote "Hope you have a howling great birthday."   I should have added "udderly" in my text but I spaced that. I also noticed that my handwriting is a bit slanted, should have used my computer.  Oh well, it's very personal.

Polka Dots and Butterflies....

I've been getting so much inspiration on Pinterest lately.  Really has my mojo going crazy!  I'll show you 2 cards today that I made this week...

I almost CASE'd this card from one on a blog called Polka Dots and Paper.  The difference... color, text, and text location.  This is a great card for using scraps. I may make some kits of this card with different texts and colors for different occasions.  I may even change buttons to flowers...  Who knows.

The card that inspired this actually was a lot different except for the fact that it used an embossing folder.  I actually like the inspiration card better so, until I can get one that more closely resembles it the blog name will wail.  I used a stamp set by Red Rubber Designs called Happily Grateful, a text by Hero Arts, and a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I think I would have gotten more of my desired result if I had used my Wizard as I can get better embossing with it.

Here it is a bit closer.  Not quite what I wanted but I like it.  My purple ribbon didn't match very good but my lighter purple looked even worse.  I feel good that I got ALL my Mother's Day cards in the mail.  I'll show you the one I made my mom in my next post.  It's a real hoot, and no, it's not owls.  And  did you realize that I posted 2 days in a row??  Thanks to Pinterest for all the inspiration (and, of course, blogs that I follow!).

Mother's Day and Sunflowers

When I was digging out the dies for the pink card in my previous post I seen my sunflower die that I've had for ages but haven't played with much.  And I had the perfect stamp for a card inside so I brought the 2 together...

(The text is from a set from Red Rubber Designs.)  I love how this turned out and I think our granddaughter will like it. I swiped ink on the die cuts after embossing  for a bit of pop.  I did make a boo boo, at least to me.  Can you figure it out?  Maybe this next picture will help.

I got my 2 bottom layers switched!!! I didn't even notice it until I glued on the top layer!  Geez.  Oh well, I know my granddaughter won't notice but it bugs me.  Since the glue had set up like it should and I had the flower center already on, well, too late!  But now I'll show you the inside.  I bet you'll think the stamp inside is perfect, too!

I knew I had this stamp and it took awhile to find the set it was in but I prevailed!  And since I couldn't get 3 leaves on the cover the third was great inside!  Oh, I did faintly stamp sunflowers on the card cover base before adding the die cuts.  I'm learning how to use my Big Shot.  It's actually a bit easier to use than my Wizard but I do have a bunch of the deep Sizzix dies and the Wizard uses those very easily.  I haven't figure out how to use them in the Big Shot and I probably won't even try.   As to sunflowers, we're thinking of taking out a patch of Aloe Vera plants that are looking really bad and fixing the spot to grow sunflowers.  I miss the bright plants and I think the birds will love them (along with the lizards, spiders, and whatever when they get growing). I hope to get this done for next year. 

But, before I close I want to show you my desk while it's clean.  I gave 2 BIG bags of paper scraps to the scrapbook store for a gal to take to Mexico to children there.  I found a couple drawers of scraps from before we moved to AZ and figured, I didn't miss them to give them away.  Then I emptied a basket of scraps into 8 small drawers by color, put my in sue scraps in the basket and again "found" my Cricut.  I wanted to play with it as I just purchased a new cartridge called Southwest.   Are you ready?

For me this is almost immaculate! I still need to do something with the stuff behind my lamp but it's coming along!! 

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 205 and More...

I'm back with my desk and oh, it's a real FRIGHT!!  I have been busting my buns getting Mom's Day cards made for our daughter, daughter-in-law, granddaughter, and son's girlfriend.  By golly, I got them done!!!  But first I'll let you see what my see what happened to my desk! I lost it!  It's buried!

I can see a bit of the table to the lower right of the scrap paper that I work on.  There's a pair of scissors just above the open spot.  Hmmm...  stamps above the scrap paper and to the left.  Piles of scrap pattern and solid card stocks on both ends of the table.  And a paper trimmer on the left.  As to forward, just too much stuff!  I'll be touring some desks later to see if anyone's looks this bad or for a bit of inspiration.  First I start with Jullia Dunnit at the Stamping Ground then start following links.

I still have 1 more "tie" card to show but I think I'll save that and show you one of the 4 special cards I made this week.  This was way out of my comfort zone and it took a couple hours to make.

I like dies by Cheery Lynn Designs and, since I had to buy a Big Shot machine to use the more elaborate dies, I thought I better use it.  I had to be careful just embossing the die as it wanted to cut and I didn't want that!  I used the French Lattice die and some Spellbinder Nestabilities.  Oh, the corners are by a Cheery Lynn die, also.  I learned the hard way about washing hands when helping dad with some "mechanical" stuff as I got some dirt on the upper right corner.  Ergo, a dragonfly to hide it.  (Did I use the right word, ergo??)

This is made with a little E K Success punch.  I did it twice, once on white and once on pink.  I cut the pink wings and glued them to the white and added a teeny pink crystal.  Not bad, not bad.

I would love to hear from you and please, after commenting, please check out Julia's blog and oodles of desks all around the world!

Tie-ing One On...

I think I got a great title for this post.  Can you guess what I'm referring to??  I've been working on my May 22 class (which may be my last for a while due to lack of interest and classes cancelling) to honor the guys in our lives!  I'll show 2 here.  The first one was inspired by a card I seen on Pinterest from a blog called "Then She Made".  Very clever....

Isn't this just adorable!  The text is computer generated as I had to make it "pun-ny".  Boy, that was bad.  Anyway, I wanted a shirt color over the tie and the text is kinda like the tie clasp.  I sponged the tie edges so it would pop on the white card.

This card was also inspired by a card on Pinterest but it was changed so much other than the rounded corner that I'm not going to say.  I want to make it again later but a bit more like the card I seen.  The text is from Lawn Fawn.  There's one more card but it is quite different.  You'll see it later.

Tied Up and Ready to Go!

I know I need to come up with another class idea with samples but I've been overwhelmed with cards that needed to go somewhere.  This week I've been stamping card innards and envies then packaging and now I have about 35 cards ready to go to the AZ Scrapbooking store in Green Valley, AZ to sell....

There went to the store yesterday.  They sell for $3.50 each.  Now that this is done I'm able to get something else done!

I'm still having problems with classes cancelling at the store.  I've tried easy, difficult, moderate... you name it, the classes just aren't going.  But I'm working on my May 22 samples which will be For the Guys.  This card was inspired by a card I seen on Pinterest from a blog called Paper, Scissors, and Superheros.  The text is from a Lawn Fawn set called Happy Everything.

I didn't even come close with the colors of the tie in my inspiration but I really like this paper by Melissa Francis.  Can you tell the white is a shirt cuff??  I think this summer, as per Debi's idea,  that I will just make individual card kits at about $3.00 each.  She said some gals, when they come to the crops, would like to make a card or two between pages or for a change of pace.  This card would work nicely but I would change the text to a birthday theme.  We'll see what happens.  The other teachers don't seem to have this falling away that I'm having, at least not as badly.

With Heartfelt Sympathy

I finished another sympathy card but only made one of these.  I've had the set this stamp is part of but haven't really played much with it.  I love the country/vintage look of the image and thought the peacefulness of it would make a good sympathy card.  All stamps are from The Angel Company and the paper is from my stash of years...

I used a crackle background stamp instead of a pattern paper.  I really like how this turned out!

Here's a bit closer look at the stamp.  I added some tan cording that gave a bit of masculine embellishment (which my hubby liked!) and voila!

I didn't do the What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday today.  My desk is loaded with cards I'm prepping for sale so my desk is completely buried!  And I spent yesterday working at my cleaning job, baking, setting up my VCR/DVD player in my craft room, then going to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse (I'm still full....).