Happy Father's Day!

My daughter put this together for her Dad for Father's Day and I just had to share it with you all. It is a digital layout and she used a photo of my husband and I from 35 years ago {yikes!} and another photo of she and her Dad taking part in their favorite pastime...napping! It is an 8 x 8 layout and the frame is from Target. Happy Father's Day!

Book of Dreams

Wow it was hot today. I stayed inside and worked in my studio because the air conditioning vent is right at my feet so it kept me cool. While I was cooling off I completed another pair of pages in my Book of Dreams. (You can see more Book of Dreams here.) The photo of the little girl releasing a dove is actually a greeting card that I had. I added the little tulle skirt and decorated it with glitter and a beaded waistline. I stamped the word FLY using lavender paint and shaded the letters with a grey marker. Above the mulberry paper arch I wrote the phrase, LET YOUR DREAMS SOAR and added a white sequin heart. I used a silver pen to draw stars above it and also to create the doodled border. Tiny rhinestones add more sparkle to the pages.

21 Day Challenge {Day 6 & Cover}

I worked on page 6 this morning {instead of cleaning something out}. I am trying to make my pages interesting to look at, yet simple so I don't take too much time away from my goal of decluttering the house. I was inspired by the delicate colors of Rhonna's page this morning, so I did my own version of it. I painted the swirls on the background with acrylic paints. I am really into swirls lately. I did go through a basket of sweaters that has been sitting in our bedroom just screaming to be sorted through. Nothing like a 90 degree day to get rid of a few sweaters that no longer fit or look too worn out to keep. Below is the cover to my journal that I finished last night. I just used up some of my old paper scraps which is helping with the decluttering in a small way.

21 Day Challenge {Days 4 &5}

These are my Days 4 & 5 for Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. I went sort of earthy with the color palette this time. And I added some doodling to the top of the page {shown below} while I was chatting on the phone with my friend from Florida tonight. I have to say that I haven't done much sorting through any of my stuff yet, but that will change over the weekend. I am trying to get myself psyched up to do that. That is the hardest part of everything, isn't it? I do have some motivation that I found out about today. Our neighborhood is going to have a garage sale in one week. Yipee! A means to unload a lot of my things and get money for it as well. The timing couldn't have been better. Now if I can just motivate myself to fill up some boxes to take to the garage, then I will be home free!

Color Week, Day 5 {Red}

Here is my RED photo for day 5. This is a flower that a friend of mine gave me yesterday. She actually gave me a small bouquet of flowers from her garden, but since none of the others were red, I only used this single bloom. This is a photo from my kitchen and the other plants are lemon balm and thyme. The thyme was also a gift from a friend {I have great friends!} who planted it in a darling little antique teacup. She even made the little tag that has a quote from Emily Dickinson on it. You can see a closer photo of it below.

I have been experiencing computer/internet problems all day and it has been terribly frustrating. I have no patience when it come to faulty technology. It drives me crazy!

Color Week, Day 4 {Blue}

Here is the "Blue" I found in my garden. I say they are Forget-me-Nots. My Husband says they are not. You decide.

21 Day Challenge - {Day 3}

Day 3 and going strong. I am loving this challenge. Wanted to do this during the last go round, but couldn't get myself motivated to start. So glad I am doing it this time. What fun! You can join in too here.

Color Week, Day 3 {Black/Grey}

I chose to capture the color black for today's Color Challenge Black/Grey Wednesday. This table is in my back hallway. Hardly anyone ever sees it, except for my family who pass thru this hall everyday.

21 Day Challenge - {Days 1 & 2}

Yesterday I started working on Round 4 of Rhonna's 21 Day Challenge. You can read about it and play along here. My challenge is to simplify my life by eliminating all the excess "stuff" I {We} have accumulated over the years. 30 years of marriage amounts to ALOT of stuff which translates into too much clutter. My motto for the next 21 days is going to be "Use it or Lose it!"

Color Week, Day 2 {Brown}

Today's color is brown. At first I thought to myself, "Hmmmm, don't think I have much that is brown around my house." But then once I started looking for it, I realized that there are many things I have that are shades of brown. Duh! Most of my wood furniture is brown (except for the painted pieces that is). So this little vinette shows a portion of my camera collection.

Color Week, Day 1 {White}

I decided to join in with Little Birds color week challenge. Day One's color is white. Pristine, fresh and clean. And oh there are so many shades of white too.

Book Of Dreams Week 7 {Fabric & Fibers}

I never realized how much pink I use in my artwork until I started this Book of Dreams challenge. But I do love it....obviously, since so many of my pages incorporate this color. I used a number of techniques on these pages all using one of my favorite embellishments - fibers. I love ribbons and rickrack and threads and yarns. So I decided to create a pocket covered in all those pretties. I created two bookmark type tags which I can journal on the back of. For the Dream Big page I used a technique I just had read about in Traci Bautista's new book, Collage Unleashed. The words and the doodles were drawn directly onto fabric using permanent markers. Then the background colors and grunge border was generated in Photoshop Elements and printed onto T-shirt transfer paper. The transfer was then ironed onto the fabric and embellished with stitching and a felt flower. The ribbon on the right side of the page was attached with gel medium and the pages were finally adorned with some glitter glue to give it a sparkley touch.

A Little Corner of Heaven

We went up north this weekend to talk to the builder who will be contructing our cottage on this plot of land this summer. I can't believe, after all this time, that this dream of ours is actually going to become a reality. It certainly has been a long time coming. My husband and I have been coming up to this area since we were first married 30 years ago. We came because my mother used to come here with my aunts and grandparents ever since they were little girls. They would spend their summers here playing and swimming at the beaches, bicycling, going for ice cream cones after supper, attending the outdoor plays put on by a local theatrical troupe, watching the sunsets, browsing thru the quaint little shops, etc. etc. Compared to most areas, I have to say that not much has changed here. And what has changed I would say have been improvments for the better. My family never was interested in owning any property up here. In fact none of them owned their own property back home either. They were always content to rent. And in the summers they would rent one of the darling little cottages from the same resort whenever they came for a visit. The area is is considered an artist's community which explains my attraction besides the family history that is here. Many people retire in this area and open galleries to showcase their various artistic talents. My husband has always wanted to have a summer home, so we combined his dream with my love of this area and decided to purchase 6 acres of land to form our dreams into one. I'll try to document the progression of this dream here on the blog.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

I got my hair cut today. I think I made a mistake. I look like the little Dutch Boy on the can of paint. Too late now though. Of course this isn't the most flattering picture either. It is a bit freaky looking with the before and after shots morphed together. It makes me look even weirder than I usually look! I guess I could have gussied up a bit also before taking the photo. You know, the way we redo our hair right after we return from the salon because we don't like what the stylist did to it. Oh well, it's only hair.....it will grow back......eventually.....right???

Self Portrait Challenge - Pop Art

According to the dictionary, "Pop Art is short for Popular Art, because it deals with subjects taken from popular culture." I wouldn't exactly say that I am a pop culture icon, but thanks to this week's Self Portrait Challenge, I guess I am.......for today anyway! Check out more "Pop Art" here.

Special Delivery

Look what the mailman brought me today. Totally cool! : )

Monday, Monday

Monday is boring routine day.
I paid some bills.
Balanced my checkbook(s).
Went to the bank.
Mailed some letters.
Bought some groceries.
Filled my car up with gas. (Yikes!)
Went through the car wash.
Did some laundry.
I also sorted through a humungous pile of old magazines that I have been hanging on to for ages. I hate to admit it but some were even Christmas idea magazines. I flipped through them one more time and cut out recipes and articles that I wanted to save. Sometimes I wonder why I bother cutting them out because by the time I get to the end of some magazines I have practically torn out every page! And then I have to find some way to store all the loose pages. Have you ever done that? I really need to stop buying so many magazines because it just creates more work for me and several unwielding stacks to have to go through later. I have a hard time parting with things. I guess you could call me a pack rat. Deciding what I should get rid of is always a problem for me. Everything begins to feel important when I have to decide what to throw out. I wonder what a therapist would have to say about that?

Garden Work

I did a little gardening today. Not the kind that you are thinking though. I created this garden layout using a photo I had taken earlier in the spring of a bed of daffodils in my backyard. I used my sewing machine to add stitching to the border of the pink mat, as well as rows along the bottom and sides of the layout. (I am loving that little Jenome sewing machine!!) Instead of just one color thread, I stitched several times in light and dark pink, brown and green. Then I added a Freestyle-type doodle border right around the photo using a white opaque pen. The copper "Garden" tag is an actual plant label that I embossed with metal embossing dies. I was inspired to try doing this after seeing Lilli's Book of Dreams page. There sure is a lot of great inspiration coming out of the weekly BOD challenges. Everyone has such great talents and imaginations. Anyway, would you believe I found the quote garden after I already started working on it. I couldn't have asked for anything more perfect than if I had written it myself!

We finally moved our patio furniture out to the deck so we can enjoy our meals alfresco again. I made potato salad, parmesan chicken and a green salad. Mmmm! A candle and some background music made an ordinary evening seem rather special. It is still a little cool outside in the evenings, so we made a beeline for the house after we finished eating! Now I think we'll watch some of our Season One DVD of "Monk". We just discovered that show this year, so we have some catching up to do.

More Book of Dreams Pages

What a beautiful day it is today. I didn't plan to spend it all inside, but I got so engrossed in working on my Book of Dreams that the day just slipped away. Sometimes even nice weather must take a back seat to artistic endeavors when inspiration is present.

I am loving this Book of Dreams project so much. I haven't even started working on this week's challenge of "Pop-ups." Actually I was looking through my Book of Dreams and came across a circle I had cut in a page a couple weeks ago when we worked on "windows." For some reason I didn't use this circle at that time, but now I thought a transparancy I had of a vase full of French Lilacs would look nice in it. So from that little chance rediscovery of the cut out circle came these pages.

For many, many years I have longed to visit Paris. It has been a dream of mine since I was in 7th grade where our class took French lessons from a teacher named Madame Varias. She was quite a character, but we all studied our DLM French dialogue tapes until we could recite them to perfection! What I like the most about Madame Varias was that she would tell us about life in Paris - the food, the sights, the culture, etc. I remember thinking to myself that someday I will travel to Paris and see everything she described to us.

In the photo above, the left hand page is an illustrated map of Paris. The right hand page shown in the photo below is done in shades of purple, lavender, teal and brown. I covered the whole page in a wash of lavender and collaged on top of that with a combination of patterned papers, rubber stamps, ephemera, ribbon, a rhinestone earring, paper clip, buttons and page pebbles. I made the tiny travel journal and it has handwritten pages and maps inside of it along with a hand beaded tiny bookmark. The hazy, translucent white circle in the center is supposed to evoke a feeling of a moonlit Parisan sky and has the word "someday..." written in white opaque ink. It also corresponds with the tranparency on the half page, giving it a light background to allow the transparency to show up better.

In the transparency half-page shown below, I used several teal glazes for the background and collaged over it using patterned paper napkins on both sides. I enjoy using napkins and tissue paper on collages because the thin tissue seems to melt into the background. Finally I embellished the page with some rhinestones, a rubber stamped embossed image and some beaded fringe.

So now it is time to get started on the pages that I am supposed to be working on this week - "Pop-ups." I think I may have to get my geometry skills dusted off for this one!!

Book of Dreams - Week 5 {Metal}

Whew, I am barely getting this submitted in time. I just realized that tomorrow is Wednesday already! That always happens to me when a holiday falls on a Monday. So this week's Book of Dreams challenge was "metal" and I thought of quite a few techniques and embellishments I could use. I seem to be intrigued by metal doo-dads as I discovered I have quite a boat-load of them stowed away! Anyway, the inspiration for this page came from the metal molding strip from Making Memories that I used on the right hand page. I bought it eons ago and never used it. {I hate to admit it, but I can say that about quite a few things that I have purchased!} Then I wanted to use up some paper scraps that I had lying around from other projects, so I created a patchwork background on the page. After piecing the papers together, I covered them with a white glaze to soften the colors. I then made a packing tape transfer of a mother holding her child and framed it with a metal frame. I created the left-hand page last {I seem to do that alot} and the patchwork background reminded me of my grandmother's quilts from my childhood. So I decided to go with the "Childhood Dreams" theme by listing the dreams on a piece of paper torn out of a small spiral notebook. I distressed the paper and layered it on top of a photograph of a collage I made a while back with myself as the subject. I finished the page off with some metal corners, paper flowers with metal brad centers and beads strung on various fibers.

Sew Cute!

It's been a while since I did any blogging. I've been just trying to catch up on some things around the house. Also, my internet connection has been giving me trouble....AGAIN! I must be the only person I know that is lamenting about giving up my AOL dial-up service. But honestly, it was so much more reliable than what I have now.

I worked on this simple scrapbook page today as week 21's assignment from Donna Downey's Big Picture Scrapbooking Class. I believe the assignment was "friends" but somehow I got sidetracked into making a sewing theme. I just bought a cute little sewing machine, that Miss Donna recommended and it is absolutely perfect for small craft projects like this. I do have a monsterously {is that a word?} heavy old Kenmore sewing machine, which happens to be buried somewhere in my storage room downstairs. But even if I could unearth it, it is much too big for my tiny studio and it is too heavy to put away and drag out whenever I need it for a project. This Jenome is only 11 lbs and much smaller, not to mention much cuter too.

Anyway I got frustrated trying to find a specific photo of my best friend that I wanted to use and while searching for it I came across these photos of my daughter and her cousin from about 18 years ago! Since I had already done some stitching on the page, {in Donna-Style}, these pictures actually seemed to fit the page better than the photo I had been looking for. You see, the kids are sewing on a tiny old Singer sewing machine that was a toy of their grandmother's when she was a girl. My nephew is actually doing the sewing, which would make his mother proud since she is quite an accomplished seamstress and quilter. My daughter is looking on while ironing with another or Grandma's antique toys.

The Da Vinci Code

I went to see The Da Vinci Code today with my daughter. We both read the book, so we were anxious to see how it translated to the big screen. Ron Howard did an excellent job with the movie. I had seen a program on television where Dan Brown also was happy with the movie and that is no small complement from an author whose book has been made into a movie. Both my daughter and I felt the film followed the book very closely. Of course another reason I wanted to see the movie was that I am obsessed with all things French, especially Paris. Someday I hope to travel there and lose myself inside the Louvre for days. {Isn't that the dream of every artist?} Anyway, if you haven't read The Da Vinci Code, you should read it before going to see the movie. It is a very easy read, with short chapters that you can squeeze into small spaces of time, so reading it goes very quickly.

Book of Dreams Week 4 {Windows}

I had a bit of trouble with these pages when I began working on them. You know how sometimes you envision what something will look like before you start, only to have it look completely different when you finish? Well that's the problem I was having with these pages. I knew the concept I wanted to convey, the photo I wanted to use and I had no trouble constructing the window. But suddenly I hit a road block and couldn't figure out how to illustrate what I wanted to express. So I let the pages sit over night and when I came back to them this morning, everything fell into place. Which speaks volumes for walking away from your art when you feel stuck or frustrated.

The photo I used is one of my daughter when she was about 3-4 years old. (She is now 22 years old.) She was dressed as a princess for Halloween and I thought it conveyed a "what do you want to be when you grow up" feeling. So from there I asked myself what are MY dreams for her future? I used the colors teal and brown because this combination is my daughter's current favorite. The quote is a reminder to accept our children for who they are instead of who we want them to be. I added the butterflies to evoke a feeling of being set free into the world. The "grow" epoxy sticker, which I positioned to show through the back side of the window, expresses how much my daughter has grown since the picture was taken.

Book of Dreams - Week 4 {Niches}

I was up very late last night finishing up my "niche" page so I could post it this morning. My niche isn't very deep as I got tired of gluing pages together. It is deep enough to hold the three-dimensional letters which spell DREAMS, so it worked out just fine. I used a pale blue, green and orange theme for these pages. On the page behind the niche I applied a glaze so that the text from the book would show through. The ribbons were tied around the pages before I secured the niche to the back page. On the left side I used a variety of word rubber stamps to convey the message, as well as the "Dream, Believe, Succeed" stamp from Inkadinkadoo and more ribbons. I am about halfway finished with the "window" pages, so I'll post them as soon as I am done.

Book of Dreams - Week Three {Images}

Yipee! I am finally caught up on my Book of Dreams project! This week's challenge was IMAGES. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do at first. Then I came across the blue and green paint chips I had saved from a decorating project and I was inspired by the cool, soothing colors. I ended up rubber stamping the partial face onto a piece of acetate using Staz-on ink and then applying the image to a chipboard tag. The image on the right-hand page is a photo of a stone fence taken at the Botanic Gardens which I printed on transparency paper and then mounted over two different backgrounds for some contrast. Paint chips, ribbons, fibers, brads and gold leafing pen accent the page. Can't wait to see what our challenge is for week 4!

Boston Legal Season Finale

Tonight is the two hour season finale of Boston Legal.
Love that show!
What a crazy law firm!!
Denny Crane!!!

Book of Dreams - Week Two {Layers}

I am a little behind on my Book of Dreams entries, so I am trying to get caught up this week. Got up early today and went straight to my studio to work instead of going on the usual distracting trips to run errands. Since I am the world's worst procrastinator I have to be very disciplined with myself otherwise I would never get anything done....which seems to happen ALOT these days!

Week Two's challenge was LAYERS. I love to layer and do it on practically everything I create. Layers add depth and interest to a piece. The problem I have is getting myself to stop layering and say the piece is done....finished....finito! Even with this piece I still think it needs something. I will let it sit for a while and come back to it and see how I feel in a couple of days. It's hard for me to say a piece is finished because alot of times when I step away from it another idea will come into my head. I guess my artwork is always evolving.

On this entry, I started with gessoed pages and then applied several layers of Golden paints for the background. After that I used some patterned tissue paper...I like using tissue paper because it is translucent enabling you to see thru it. I cut out some of the flowers from the tissue paper, mounted them on cardstock and applied them to the page using 3D dots to give them some dimension. The green tag is a leftover distressed piece of card stock from a school project my daughter just turned in. She was going to throw it away and I said, "I'll take it!" (I am such a packrat!) Some of the script paper is actually from a letter my 95 year old aunt wrote to me. The words are rub-ons - love rub-ons!!! Now I am off to work on week three. Hopefully I will be able to complete it before ArtsyMama posts week four tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day!

It is a couple of hours before Mother's Day, but I won't be home at all on Sunday, so thought I would get this posted early. This is my mother when she was in her early 20's. Quite a glamorous shot, don't you think? I wish I knew her when she was that age. I wonder what her hopes and dreams and aspirations were back then? She didn't give birth to me until she was 33 years old, so I wasn't even a twinkle in her eye when this picture was taken. You know how it is. When you are young you think you will do all kinds of things with your life. Then you have kids and a lot of times all those plans get put on the back-burner for a while. But the "key phrase" is for a while. It is a good idea to hang on to your dreams, write them down and refer to them often, because at some point those kids will grow up and leave the nest. And that is when you can dig out those dreams, dust them off and make them a reality for yourself! Happy Mother's Day!

Studio Friday - Robots

This week's Studio Friday topic is ROBOTS. This one was a difficult topic for me because I just realized I don't have anything high-tech in my art space. Actually I am surprised by that because I love all the latest gadets and gizmos. They just happen to be in other parts of my house and not in my studio. Other than my iPod that is. And that idea was out because I used the iPod last week for the "Sounds" challenge. So my P-Touch Label-Maker is gonna have to do. It is like a mini robot, don't you think? You type in some organizing words and it automatically prints out a label for you, just like magic! I bought it after watching an episode of the old Martha Stewart Living TV show where she was labeling everything she could get her hands on. Deep down I am an organizational fiend, but some people who live with me would probably dispute that comment. I strive to be organized, but sometimes in doing so, I make a bigger mess than what I had when I started. Hasn't that ever happened to you? And then there are the bags I keep tripping over from my latest shopping spree for patterned papers and collage embellishments that I haven't had time to put away into their respective organized drawers yet. Maybe this weekend I can work on that and then label the drawers at the same time!

Ode To Pink

I spent the day working on digital layouts. I am really getting into scrapbooking on the computer. I thought it would be quicker, but it really isn't. Not for me anyway! There are lots of free digital scrapbooking kits online. Just do a Google search and see what you can find. 2Peas has a different free kit every month, so that is a good place to start. I took a couple of classes, which really saved me a lot of time (and frustration) trying to figure out how to do it myself. It helps to have someone walk you thru the basics and answer any questions you might have. There are also lot of books available on the subject too.

So this is my Ode to the Color Pink. I like pink a lot - all shades of it. I don't know when I started liking pink, but at one point I noticed that I use pink a lot in my artwork. I have more shades of pink paint than any other color. I love pink flowers. I also look good when I am wearing a pink shirt or sweater. My dishes have a pink floral border on them. I wanted to buy a pair of pink crocs, but I chicken out and went with boring blue instead. And as I mentioned in the journaling to the right, I like that pink coordinates well with so many different colors, like green, blue, orange, brown, grey, black, etc. That is probably why I am able to use it so often in my art. I guess you could say that pink is my favorite color (although green runs a close second on my list of faves.) What's your favorite color?

Self Portrait Tuesday - Introduce Yourself

Recently we went back to the neighborhood in Chicago where I grew up. It was quite a trip down memory lane to visit all my old haunts, my elementary and high schools, my friends houses, places we shopped, etc. This is the apartment building I lived in from age 6 until I was 22. The apartments have now been converted into condos. The current owner happened to be coming home while we were walking around outside and he was nice enough to invite us inside to see what the place looks like now. Surprisely, not much had changed. I was happy to see that the beautiful hardwood floors and crown molding were still intact as well as some of the other grand features of the building. I know that they say that "you can never go home again"...but in this case, I did.

Bird Watching

Every year we have a family of birds that sets up housekeeping in the little bird house on this garden chair right outside our front door. It is a curious place to build a nest mainly because our front door has a lot of traffic going through it everyday. Nonetheless, the bird family returns, year after year to make this their happy home. It is fun to watch (and listen to) them prepare the nest inside the bird house. We find all sorts of nest-building debris on the stoop during this creative process. After a while, we start to hear lots of noisy tweeting from the papa bird who keeps watch over his home from a distance making sure no one disturbs his family. And soon after that we hear the gentle chirping of the hungry baby birds waiting for mama to feed them. It always amazes me that there is enough room in that tiny bird house to hold both mama and her babies. Anyway, it is a small annual event that occurs every year at our house keeping us all entertained.

Take a Moment...

Do you ever feel like your life is so hectic that you just need to take a moment, relax and catch your breath? I would imagine that everyone feels this way at some point in their life. Art is the way that I cope with those crazy kind of days. When I am creating I lose myself and my worries at least for that moment. It sure beats going to a therapist! Yesterday was one of those days. I took some time to finish off this layout that started as a make-and-take at Archiver's on Friday. It began as a 12x12 layout, but I altered it to 8x8, which happens to be my preferred size du jour these days. I took a photo of the BREATHE pillow that I bought at a craft mall I used to manage. I was drawn to the pillow by both the colors and the sentiment. Sometimes you just need that gentle reminder to take it easy once in a while. Keep in mind that a scrapbook layout doesn't always have to have a photo of a person - just something you love or enjoy. The journaling on the tag reads: "It's a good idea to take time once in a while to smell the roses, let your mind wander a little, relax your body and soul and to be grateful for all God has given us." Here's to a relaxing Sunday afternoon!

Studio Friday - Sounds

Ah, the sound of music! Music is usually the best companion while working in the studio. It can inspire you, change your mood, give you rhythm and flow, block outside distractions, stir up a memory, and help you escape. The sound of music is the most freeing sound in my studio.
"Where words fail, music speaks." - Hans Christian Anderson

It's Lilac TIme!

Don'y you just love the look of lilacs? I do! The scent is absolutely heavenly and the colors so exquisite, as if handpainted by Mother Nature herself. They are my favorite flower, after pink roses that is. Anyway, I thought I would share this freshly picked bouquet from my garden. I went shopping today which always puts a huge dent in my pocketbook. But who can resist a new product when it comes to this wonderful passion of our? One of the items I discovered is this great new tool. It's called the Crop-A-Dile by We R Memory Keepers. I had seen it advertised in magazines, but never imagined that it would be as fabulous as it actually is. I tried it out today and it is truly as great as the manufacturer says it is. It's a combination hole punch and eyelet setter. The hole punch actually can cut through chipboard as if it was butter! That's all it took for me to say, "I need that!" It also sets eyelets with the same ease and absolutely silently. It is an all-in-one tool which eliminates the need for hammer, hole punch, eyelet setter, setting mat, etc. And to make it even more perfect, it has a pink handle! I think I'll be adding eyelets to everything I can get my hands on for a while.

Another item that I couldn't resist was K and Company's set of Shapes and Tags. They come packaged in this cute little lunchbox container which holds quite a large selection of chipboard tags, ribbon slides, and shapes. One side of the tag is decorated with typical K and Company designs and the opposite side is plain chipboard, ready to be decorated with your own paper, paint, photos, or whatever else you desire.


The last of my fabulous finds was this set of Clear Stamps from Autumn Leaves. This particular set is appropriately called "Flowers" and is designed by Rhonna Farrer. The set includes a collection of funky flowers and scrolls in pure Rhonna-Style. I love the clear stamps since they take up so much less storage space AND they are so easy to position on your work. (Note: Archiver's has them on sale this weekend for 20% off.) Well, I am off to play with my new toys now.....Ta-ta for now!!

All Day on the Computer

Wow! Where did the day go? I spent most of the day working on the computer. First I taught my daughter how to create digital scrapbook pages. I have been taking Renee Pearson's awesome class, Doing It Digi at Big Picture Scrapbooking, and having a blast with it. My daughter asked if I could share some of my knowledge with her (what little I have on the subject), so I was showing her some of the things Renee has taught us in class.

I also worked on changing a few things around on my blog. I now have a THREE column blog instead of only two. It took some fiddling and lots of trial and error, but I finally was able to accomplish what I wanted to do, despite the fact that I think I am technologically challenged! There are a few more design things to work out before I am completely satisfied...you know how that is....but it can wait for another day.

What a Difference

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday was cold, damp and gloomy. Today it is sunny, bright and 70 degrees. It's funny how much the weather affects our moods. Well, I am headed outside to take advantage of this glorious day before it slips away. Have a great day!

Dogs and Cats and Birds, Oh My!

It was a rainy, dreary weekend here and it is still raining today. Bummer! I don't care for cold, gray days. But as the saying goes - April showers, bring May flowers - so I will be patient and hope the sun will be shining again soon. Since the rain prevented me from taking part in any outdoor activities, I used the time to create a mini pet book. I was able to make use of the Target recipe divider cards I purchased last week. (See Post from 4/28/06) I filled the pages with photos of all the pets we have owned and loved over the years. I embellished the tabs on the dividers with various colored ribbons. ID tags for some of the pets that are no longer with us are attached to binder rings. The quote in the back of the book says, "Some of God's greatest gifts are the animals he gives us to love." This mini album is a great way to honor our furry friends.