Ribbons and Lace

I actually had this card and several other SC images finished last Wednesday. I've just put off blogging them. I must really love waiting to the last minute to get entered in Challenges.

This week the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog challenge was to use ribbon and lace. So being a person that loves ribbon and lace on little girls' clothes, this wasn't a difficult challenge at all.

This image is called Cheer Up, and she's one of Sassy Cheryl's latest images. Don't you love that pouting face. She's colored with Copics. The papers are from my scrap box. There is a story behind the Word Art. When my youngest DD was in those "wonderful" teenage years, and we'd have those discussions about behavior and decisions(you know the ones I'm talking about), she'd roll her eyes and say "FINE!"  No matter how I type it, I can't convey her feelings when she said that normally one syllable word. Today instead of "fine" it's Whatever or in the Southern world "WHAT evah!" My 4 1/2 year old grandson(child of above said DD) is paying her back. He just says "I don't care!"  Can you see me smiling over that?

I had a whole page of Sassy Cheryl images colored and thought I'd share another one that I did. Again the papers are from my scrap box and the sentiment is from Create with TLC. Be sure you check out Sassy Cheryls Digi Shop.

Finally here's the Word Art. Feel free to grab it.

Show Me Thursday #35

It's that time of the week again. You know what I'm talking about, that time to show what you're working on, so that you can justifiably snoop in the work spaces of others. Sassy Cheryl issues this challenge on her Sassy Cheryl Blog, and all it takes is you taking a snapshot of what you've got going on in your life(it doesn't have to be making cards).  For entering in the challenge, you have a chance of winning a free Sassy Cheryl image. Since I'm a nosey parker, this is a win/win for me.

I've been pretty inactive in Tazmania this past week. However, yesterday I cleaned my house so that crafting would be guilt free. When I was reorganizing last week, I found a stack of images I had colored when I first got my Copics. The coloring isn't the greatest, but the image is adorable, so I decided to turn them into some OWH cards. The image is called Sumpins Wrong and is one of my favorite Mo Manning Digital Pencil designs. I think I fell in love with it since it is so typical of a toddler.  The papers came strictly from my scrap box, which is a good thing. I created the Word Art in Photoshop and you can grab it at the bottom of the page.

Yesterday my niece, her DH and baby Coleman came by, and I drug the child's rocker out of the corner of the room. He entertained us for a half hour, rocking his body back and forth trying to make the chair rock(he was smart enough to know what it was supposed to be doing). It's a very old chair and the arms are loose and the is worn and torn. Today, I took all the fabric off and re-glued the arms. Now I have to get some fabric(hoping my neighbor has some leftovers from her recent upholstering projects) to remake the seat cushion and back pad.

Did you notice that I also have TM looking pretty neat in terms of my work space? I'm all set to work on the next project.
 
Here's the Word Art. If you grab it, I would appreciate an acknowledgement with a simple thanks.

A Clean and Reorganized SMT 34

Folks that know me well, know that I am one nosey parker, which is why I love playing along with the Sassy Cheryl Show Me Thursday challenge. Heck, I'd do it even if there wasn't a chance of winning a free image, but I'm certainly not turning one down. Miss Sassy Cheryl has been on a creative binge lately, and I really need to win, since there are now 8 new images that I have to have.

At any rate, TM was a disaster earlier in the week. I went out there with every intention of cleaning it up before I created another card. I had a bunch of SC images colored, and well, I got a little sidetracked(but I did get my challenge card done earlier than usual). At any rate, after I finished the card, I decided to start cleaning and in the process started some reorganizing. Yesterday I was a slug, so today it was nose to the grindstone.

At any rate this is what it looked like on Sunday night. One of the first things I did today, was to take the wooden crate on the right side of my workspace and resectionalize it with rectangular partitions for those tools I need at hand when crafting. Some of those items are small and drop down too low inside the crate, so DH built me a small shelf(I've got the Copics case on top of it) and I built some cardboard drawers to slide in under it. I have my Spicas, erasers and some colored images in them. The picture on my table is one of my favorites, and one that my DH hates. It's a picture of MM and DH asleep on the sofa after dinner when MM was a  3 months old. Doesn't MM look just like his Grandpa?

I got all the scrap paper either filed in my scrap box, or done away with in the trash as you can see from the view of my whole side of the table. I took my two storage carts that have my rubber stamps in them out from under my tall table and stacked them at side of my fabric cabinet, and then I put my Cricut on the cart that my friend's DH made and rolled it under the tall table. I have another project for DH to work on soon, but it's a modification to the Cricut cart. You'll have to wait to see whether I can make it happen or not.

So that's it for me this week. Come on and snap a shot of your work space, or what you're doing this week and enter it in the Show Me Challenge over on Sassy Cheryl's Blog. Hey you might win the free
image instead of me(and more than likely will)

Make My Circles Funky

I went over to TM with all intentions of straightening up my work table, filing the larger scraps and tossing the rest of paper BEFORE working on my challenge card.  I just happened to have 6 Sassy Cheryl images all colored up, and instead of cleaning, I went into Sassy Cheryl Challenge Blog mode. The challenge this week was to use circles. Now how difficult is that?

It turned out not to be very difficult at all. I quickly got sidetracked in my cleaning, when I decided to take a quick glance through my digital papers notebooks. I had this image, "Just Saying a Little Hello Girl", from Sassy Cheryl Digi Shop, already with Copics, so I knew I was looking for something with purple and orange. I knew I had some paper with circles, but imagine my delight with this find from Raspberry Road Designs. This paper is from a kit called Groovy Garb. I took the liberty of changing the hot pink and the gold to purple and orange. I added some stacked circles of various sizing. I refused to center anyything. I think it makes it more interesting. Finally I created the sentiment in Photoshop.


This kind of reminds me of the Jimmy Dean Sausage Breakfast commercials with the planets orbiting the sun. Do you know the commercial I'm talking about?

Feel free to grab the sentiment.

Pastel Baby Card

I'm going to make it with a second entry into the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog's Pretty Pastel Challenge. I couldn't help myself.

As many of you know Phindy has just recently become a Grandmother for the first time, with the arrival of an angel that I call Sweet Pea.  Phindy drew this precious image, that she calls Brand New, and offered it as a prize to the person that got closest to the baby's arrival and statistics. I started calling the baby Sweet Pea, when she decided she wasn't coming out of the pod(I thought she's be on time). She was two weeks late, but that was all good, because, she came into the world ready to eat and sleep.  Since I love babies, I couldn't wait to do something with this image, and pastels and this challenge gave me just the opportunity. Please go check out all the wonderful children's images that Phindy has at the Phindy's Place Shop. She truly does show children as they really are.

The image is both colored with Copics and paper pieced. I am happy to say, that I created all of the papers and the sentiment myself in Photoshop. One of my favorite things about babies is there sweet sleepers, and I knew this sleeper needed to be something special. The bear in the image sent me looking for some free bear clip art. When I found a dancing bear in a pastel pink dress, I knew I needed to make my very own papers. I found a great video tutorial at Photoshop Elements Users that showed how to create textured paper, striped paper and polka dot papers and used it to create my very own Dancing Bear Kit.

Please feel free to grab the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping in, and I love getting feedback.

Pretty Pastels

This week over on the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog, the challenge is to create a project in Pretty Pastels. This sounds easy enough doesn't it? 

The first thing I did was to start looking for papers. Remember that I am the QUEEN of digital papers, so narrowing the hunt to just one set of pastels and preferably something that I haven't used before made it a little difficult. I finally settled on these gorgeous papers from a free kit called RoseManor Collection from Raspberry Roads Designs.

Next issue is to pick an image. I should tell you I am totally addicted to Phindy's images. However, I wanted to use a new image, so off I went shopping over in the Phindy's Place Shop. One of the papers is words that made me think wedding, so I decided I needed the Love Birds Wedding. The coloring was done with Copics.

The sentiment is from I Corinthians 13:13, one of the favorite wedding verses. I created it in Photoshop, so  feel free to grab it. I colored some sheer ribbon with Copics and threaded it through the Martha Stewart Linked Trim punch. The flowers were made using the Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch.

Thanks for stopping by and I love hearing from you.

A New Look on Show Me Thursday

It's time once again for Show Me Thursday over on Sassy Cheryls Blog. It's just a way to see what folks are working on each week. What I love about it, is that it isn't about showing a card, but really showing what your life is about. I've made new friends and am loving seeing their part of the world, as well as seeing their precious grandchildren.
 
I actually snapped this picture last Thursday night at the end of an evening rushing to get a challenge card finished and blogged, but that's not what my week's been all about at all. I've cleaned it up since, but it looks just about like that right now. I'm headed out there next to clean up before I start carding again.

As many of you know, I live in the country. Now it's not developed country, but farm and cattle land. Not too far from me is a field that was planted in wheat that was harvested in May. I should also tell you that I grew up in the Mississippi Delta, which used to be the capital of raising cotton.  Our family spent a lot of Sunday afternoon driving through the Delta and looking at crops. I tell you this, so that you know, I can tell if it's cotton, corn or soybeans about the first sign of a leaf when the seeds germinate. Well the wheat field got replanted, and both my DH and I thought it was soybeans. Didn't take us long to realize it wasn't, and although these plants had the appearance of cotton, the leaves were too big. There was much discussion between DH and myself, as well as my walking buddy and myself(we even walked down there one morning for a closer look). Imagine my delight when my DH ran into the guy that farms the field, and said he'd planted it in sunflower seeds for the land owner to bring in the doves in September.

It's been a joy to watch them shoot up and to bloom. It's especially nice when I'm coming back from town, since they're facing the east. I got DH to help take the ladder down there yesterday to take some pictures of the field without the background of the trees or the neighboring house. I then came home and played with Photoshop to create a new banner for my blog. I have to tell you, I love it. It's so ME! Bright, sunny and happy! I had no problem with the banner, but the background has me stumped. For some reason, even the blogger background templates don't post right. I guess I'm stuck with a somewhat solid(you'll notice on the sides that the color starts fading about 2" down) background.

The added benefit is that the property owner's wife called to tell us we could have all we wanted. Personally I just like riding by and seeing that great big field of Happy Faces.

Paper Ribbons

Every time I say this I think of that song Paper Roses that Marie Osmond made into a hit after Anita Bryant had sung it. This week's challenge on the Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog was to create a card and make your own paper ribbon.

Before I chose an image from my Sassy Cheryl's folder, I decided to go have a look around in the new and improved Sassy Cheryl's Digis Store. Imagine my delight when I found not 1, but 6 images I had to have. Oh and this is before she added the little boy version of this image. She's called Missing You and she's just too cute. Love that haircut as it's how my daughters and my granddaughter wore their hair when they were little girls. When I saw her, I knew her outfit had to be "coordinating fabrics" and thus had to be paper pieced. It's funny, because Sassy Cheryl had the same thoughts when she did the colorized versions. The papers I used for the "fabric" are from a digital paper kit from Lily Bimble called Fiesta Papers. I found them at the My Grafico web site. The rest of her is colored with Copics.

The papers are either from my scrap box, or my cardstock file. I embossed the aqua papers with my polka dot embossing folder. Since I was doing coordinating papers, it worked out that I had two outfits, so I created two cards. OWH is asking for Missing You cards, so this is a Win/Win for me. I created the sentiment in Photoshop, and I'm posting it for anyone that wants it. I printed it and made it looked like it had been printed on a ribbon. I also used a strip of cardstock to create a "ruffled" ribbon.

Can you believe, I got this done before Monday afternoon at 4 p.m.? Yeah, I'm kind of amazed too, and to add icing to the cake, my house is also clean, so there was no guilt while I was crafting.

Taking Lemons and Making Lemonade

Yesterday, my 4 1/2 year old grandson,Alex, aka MonkeyMoo, aka MM made his first appearance in the emergency room. He either fell or was pushed at school(stories vary depending on whom was interviewed -he says he tripped over his feet) into the corner of a cabinet and gashed his head wide open. Well 7 stitches later and getting to go home early from daycare, we Skyped with him last night, to find that he was in high spirits.

He was excited about having a third eyebrow until he discovered that the cut was vertical and not horizontal. As my daughter said his imagination was not harmed in any way. He decided that he had the look of a pirate, so he quickly donned his Uncle Sam beard, his pirate hat and grabbed his sword, closed one eye, made a fist to make it look like he had a stub for an arm and posed for this picture.

A group of us were talking about daredevil and fearless children. One of them, Anna says that her youngest son was so fearless his doctor thought he might be the Rep for the company No Fear and that she had bought him a T-shirt that said I Do All My Own Stunts. Those were too such great sentiments, I had to make them into Word Art. I can think of several images they'll work with too. I thought I'd share them with you.

Buttons, Buttons Times 2

I told you I liked buttons, and I wasn't kidding. I'm so excited that I'm getting two cards done in one day and at the last minute for the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog button theme challenge.

I've had this sweet image from Phindy's Place Shop called Softball Girl, for quite some time. I've colored her with Copics. Now you'll notice she's not all tomboy. She's got on her girly girl pink t-shirt under her uniform.Ever since I purchased this image I've been looking for the right accessories. Needless to say that when I came across these buttons at WalMart, I HAD to have them. The papers are digital and again, once I found them I had to have them, too. They're from Sprouting Seeds Studio, and the kit is called Let's Play Baseball.

Now I'm off to get this card posted on the challenge and then I'm going to chillax for what's left of the evening.

Buttons, Buttons, Whose Got the Buttons

That would be me and any one else wanting to take part in the Phindy's Place Challenge for this week. I have a love affair going with buttons, that dates back to my earliest days of sewing. Today there are so many decorative buttons out there that are just perfect for card embellishments, and buttons are generally cheaper than scrapbooking embellishments.
Isn't this image THE MOST ADORABLE thing you've ever seen? I know if you've been to the beach, you've all seen a little girl that looks just like this one from the back. You know the one I'm talking about, the one so involved in having fun, that she's totally oblivious to the fact that she's about to lose her bottoms. Either that or she doesn't care.LOL This image is one that Phindy just recently released and is called "Summer Bare". Please go check her out at the Phindy's Place Shop. I'd give you a direct link, but I'd rather you have to look for her and find some other images along the way that you just HAVE TO HAVE. I've colored her with Copics and given her a touch of pink around the shoulders and derriere. When I was a teenager and had a much better figure, I had the cutest green with white polka dot two piece. I had brown spots all over my bottom from the sun tanning me through the white dots. Took me forever to figure out what was going on with those spots.

As you all know, I'm totally addicted to paper and my obsession with digital papers is worse than my addiction to real paper. This week I found a new source of paper, My Memories. They have some wonderful freebies out there. The blue cloud paper is from the My Memories website and is from a free kit called Celebrate Summer Extras from Jill Dzines. The other papers were also free, but came from a mega kit called Dog Days of Summer from Digital Divas Designs.

I found the flip flop buttons on sale at Hobby Lobby(they made me think of my blogging friend Jennifer Tidwell of Flip Flop Creations, and the polka dotted buttons, I just picked up somewhere along the way, just because I liked them.

I created the Word Art in Photoshop to carry on the flip flop theme. I'm posting both the flip flop underlay and the plain Word Art for any that want them. Just click on them and then save the picture to your files.
Thanks for stopping by. Now let's see if I can get another button card done, because I've got the best buttons to use for the image I have selected.

Show Us Your Scallops

This is the theme for this week's Sassy Cheryl Challenge Blog, and I have to say the DT did an amazing job with their inspirational projects.

I am, of course, running behind and getting my entry in at the last minute. I had this image already printed and on my table top, so decided to see what I could do with her. She's called "Babies First Steps Girl". In case you didn't know, Sassy Cheryl has divorced her digi images from her colored images and now has two stores. Her Digi Images can be found at Sassy Cheryl's Digis, and her colored images can be found at Sassy Cheryl's Illustrations. She's colored with Copics. I love the fact that children don't care about coordinating. It's all about favorites things and that's the way I've colored her.
The DP papers are from a digital paper kit called No - A Toddler's Creed by Reid-Safty from Computer Scrapbook Dot Com. The flowers are some I made a while back. The scalloped frame was cut with a Spellbinders die cut, as were the scalloped circles. The sentiment is from my stash.

Now let's go see if I can get a card done for another challenge that ends today. Oh and believe it or not, I have even cleaned off my desk from the mess I made making this card. Will wonders never cease?

Around About the 4th Shrimp Boil SMT

It's SMT post for the Sassy Cheryl Blog, so I'm going to bore you senseless with lots of pictures and words of what I've got going on.

Well this past week was a busy one for me, but not in the crafting department. Every year my DH's Brother and his wife along with my DH and myself host a Shrimp Boil for family and friends. We call it the Around About the 4th Shrimp Boil as we do it on a Saturday that is around the 4th and depending on when my BIL and SIL can get up from the coast. You guessed it, this year it was on the 9th. I am responsible for invitations(I'm still old fashioned enough that I don't send e-vites and there are just too many to call). I got those made and in the mail about the second week of June. I also buy all the veggies that go in with the shrimp and make the slaw and tea. Of course, none of that can be done much ahead of time. So I'm sharing pictures with you of the Saturday Event.

DH and I started the day off by taking his step-daughter's DH and son kayaking on Tibbee Creek, where our camphouses are. I forgot my new kayaking vest and had to go home to get it(camphouse is just over 3 miles from the house which makes it really convenient when I forget something that I need). The sun was a gorgeous orange as it was rising, but by the time I got my camera to take a picture it had gone behind a cloud. This is a picture of the lily pads that are growing. I've never paddled up close to them before, but they smell wonderful, and I love the way the water just rolls on top of the leaves. This was also the last relaxing moment I had on Saturday.

We waited until about 2:30 to set up the tables and chairs because of the chance of T'storms, although it was the lowest percent chance of rain we'd had all week. We had just gotten everything setup and decorated when in comes the first of two thunderstorms. We quickly put the tables up on the porches and decks and 15 minutes later, the sun came out. We set them up again. It was hot before the first thunderstorm and like a sauna after it moved through. This is a picture of the first set up in the yards.
For the second year, I've set up a table with OWH Any Hero cards asking for our guests to write for their supper. The reason this picture is so bad is because of the sauna like effects after the first thunderstorm. I 'm happy to say that one of my nieces made sure that most of the folks wrote at least one thank you for our servicemen. One of my many SIL's found Miss Liberty in someone's trash after a yard sale and rolled it home. She's a perfect accessory.

Folks milling around over at BIL's, waiting for the food and before the second thunderstorm came through.

This was of course the main course, but we also had a half a hog and grilled sausages along with the usual sides of potatoes, onions, mushrooms and corn on the cob cooked in crab boil, slaw and potato salad. There was also a table full of desserts furnished by our guests(I know how to throw a party and not do ALL the work.)

After the second thunderstorm, we just moved all the card tables up on the porches and ate. Here are pics of everyone enjoying the food and fellowship. The first is the porch at BIL's(usually set up for the older family and friends) and the second is the deck at our camphouse. This is only the second time in about 10 years that it has actually rained. The first time, BIL hadn't built his camphouse and our deck didn't have a roof on it. Needless to say, that DH added a roof to our deck before the next Shrimp Boil.

This event is all about family. I've never known a family like my husband's that is so family oriented. My DH is one of 14 children, 13 of whom are still living and all of whom were present Saturday night, along with a large number of their children and grandchildren. The following pictures are of some of the younger great generation.

This is my niece Carrie, with her son, Coleman(age 10 months). He's the first grandson of BIL hosting the event.
This is great nephew Corbin(age 6 months) enjoying his first Swoope Shrimp Boil. This is the second grandson of BIL hosting the event.

This is our great niece, Mary Ray(age 2 1/2), whose certainly enjoying the chocolate ice cream that her Great Uncle Brother brought for dessert.

The party was a huge success despite the showers. Everyone had a great time. Thanks for stopping by, and hope I haven't bored you to pieces.

Anything Goes

This week is the Phindy's Phriday Challenge on the Phindy's Place Challenge Blog. For the next several months, the first Friday of the month is going to be an Anything Goes as long as you use a Phindy's Place image. No problem there for me, I've got tons of images and am always buying more.LOL
For what I hope is the first of my challenge cards, I chose this image called "Ships at Sea". Isn't he delightful? He's one of the wonderful Summer Cuties that can be found at the Phindy's Place Shop. I'm not going to give you the direct link, because if you have to look, I'm sure you'll find an image or two or three that you just HAVE to HAVE. He is of course colored with Copics.

I have to tell you I found this wonderful paper over on the My Grafico site, and when I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for Ships at Sea. It's from Jazzy Patterns, and is appropriately enough called Sailing Away.

The sentiment is one I quickly worked up in Photoshop. When I was looking for a sentiment, I Googled sailing quotes. I found this quote "A sailor’s joys are as simple as a child’s" by Bernard Moitessier. It reminded me that children don't need fancy toys to experience joy. Please feel free to grab the senitment if you want it
.

Outside the Box

Here's the deal over on Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog this week - create a project in which you leave part of the image out of the box. Well that seemed easy enough. If you want to see some fantastic examples, just check out the DT's cards over on the Challenge Blog HERE. Since I'm running short of time for challenges(I'm working with my neighbor on creating some OWH Any Hero cards), I opted to do a two for one. My challenge card is also going to be entered in the Color Me Challenge on Sassy Cheryl's Blog.


The image is called "I Love You This Much Boy", and he's colored with copics. In this case it's pretty obvious he dressed himself, since coordinating clothes is obviously not happening. He reminds me of my grandson, MonkeyMoo and his mother, when she was a little girl. I have a school picture with her in an outfit that I can't believe her father let her leave home in EVER, much less on Picture day(I wasn't there at the time).

The papers are some I purchased from Create with TLC, and that I found in my stash of scraps(aren't you amazed that I remembered where they came from). The sketch is variation of a card that I saw made up in the Fall 2010 Paper Creations. The sentiment is something I typed up in Word.

Before I close, I want to remind you to check out and HELP SPREAD THE WORD about the Lungs 4 Life Fundraiser for Tripp Oldham. There is a fabulous image package and a raffle in which some fantastic prizes are going to be given away.

Show Me Thursday # 31

Well here it is only Friday, and I'm posting what's going on in my space. Mostly it's a mess. For anyone just happening in, it's Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday challenge. If you post of picture of your work space or what's happening in your life to the Sassy Cheryl Blog, you're entered in a challenge to win a free Sassy Cheryl image, and that's all well and good. However the best part is that you get a chance to visit and see everyone spaces and what they're working on.

This week my neighbor kindly agreed to help me make some OWH Any Hero cards. I want to have a whole bunch of them ready for our Shrimp Boil next week. I make them write for their supper. We all need to let our troops know we appreciate them.

Here's a pic of my neighbor working on assembling the cards and the second picture is of me layering stars.


This last picture is the fruit of our labors. We're off to a start, but we've still got a ways to go.


Now come on and snap a picture of your workspace and get entered in the challenge. We really are interested in what you have going on.