Jewelry I Made This Weekend

 I love all sorts of crafts, but over the last couple of years I have discovered beading and really enjoy it. While I'm beading is one of my most spiritual times. The beads tend to put me in some sort of trance and I am totally involved- first in the hunt for the perfect bead, then meditating on the magic of the stones, and the way they feel in your hand, and finally completing the creation. I also listen to lots of chanting and drumming during my beading time so that helps as well. I took a couple of shots of some of the pieces here so you can view them in different light. I will soon have my etsy store back up again, hopefully around the first of August, but I want to work on lots more creations for now while I'm in the mood. Anyway, pictured today is a little of this and that. There's some amber and jet, my favorite is the flourite and amethyst piece, a bit of coral and my latest idea was to make a pair of chakra earrings with swarovski crystals while centering myself. I will be making another smaller version of these soon as well. Well, I guess I better jump off of here and get back to beading!

Orb caught on vacation

Hey there! I just got back from a little vacation in the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg TN area. While there we did lots of fun things like we saw the TN Shindig show, visited a couple of bead stores, went to the Scrapbook Superstore, ate good southern food until I was stuffed, and shopped around at all the little cute stores there and drooled over all the handmade wood creations. However, my favorite part of the trip was a haunted ghost walk we took in Gatlinburg. I have been on many of these ghost walks before in New Orleans LA, Savannah Georgia, St Augustine Florida, Abingdon, VA and more. The ghost tours are not the type where someone jumps out with a big BOO to scare you, but these are more of a walking history tour of parts of the cities where hauntings have been reported. I learn so much about the towns and history of these towns that anytime I'm near one I love to go. Anyway, on this tour we started and ended at the White Oaks cemetery and heard some stories there. Soon we began our walks down the back alleys of the town and heard various stories at each spot. I personally did not feel anything at any of the spots until we were below a river front hotel where the story started out as a young boy about 8 years old was staying with his family there and playing around jumping up and down on the balcony. His sister was 6 and wasn't going to be outdone by her loder brother and started jumping as well. The poor girl ended up falling to her death in the small river below. Her spirit has been seen many times by many people in the river and on the balcony. I took many photos along the walk, but during this time I caught what looks like a white round lit image, otherwise known as an orb. I don't know if this means anything or not, but the picture was a time when I was whispering talking to the child and asked her to say hello if she was there. I work with kids, and am very good with them, and they all seem very comfortable with me so I felt especially drawn to the little girl story I suppose. I did feel like there was something near there, so I find it fascinating that this was the only picture on the trip that I caught an orb above the water, but below the hotel. I'm not an expert on the paranormal in any way, but I do find it interesting. I don't know if it's real, or a reflection of some sort or what, but I liked seeing it in the photo. On the walk we were provided with an EMF reader, although not what I call a high quality one at all. I did see it go to the top setting 2 times on the walk though. Although when I took pictures of those areas I caught nothing on film, and didn't really feel anything different in those areas myself. Anyway, getting away on a little vacation was very nice. Sometime in late July I will be visiting the Charleston, SC area where I hope to take yet another ghost walk. I'll post on how it goes when I return.

Happy Summer!

Happy Summer everyone! I thought I would add some fresh flowers around to celebrate the day.

My Dad's Father's Day Card

Here's the card I made for my father this year. My dad is so special in my life I could never do a card that is special enough to tell him how I feel, but here's my attempt for this year. This card used the Su set called Noble Deer. It has retired now, but I still love this set for a nice masculine card.

Using my Hero Arts stamps

Here's my latest Hero Arts card. This one doesn't seem to stamp out as well as I had planned so I am going to be playing with it in different ways in the coming days.

Hero Arts Stamps

Hey there! I promised to post some of my new stamps from Hero Arts, so here are a few favorites. I have to say I still prefer the wood mounted stamps, but I just can't seem to pass up the cutuest stamps and beautiful phrases that seem to only come in the clear stamps. Alright, I better get back to creating now!

Mother's Day card

Here's the card I made for my mother for Mother's Day ths year. I love this combination of baja blue and Parisian Breeze paper from Stampin' Up. The light on this scan is a little funny, but it looks much better and more elegant in person.

Post Office Goodies Make Me SMILE!!!!

There's nothing better to me than having a great mail day at the post office. I get so excited when I open my box and see goodies inside! Today my cousin sent me an awesome book called Death By Design! It's a mystery novel combined with scrapbooking. I had hear of this trilogy in a scrapbooking magazine a while back, but did not know it was out! This is the first book in the series, and I just can't wait to read it. Also included in the package was a huge bunch of sheets of these awesome stickers, and a great pack of scrapbooking papers. I'm all set for some crafting this weekend! Another fabulous prize in my box was my very own Bagolita from my pen pal Stacey! The Bagolitas are handmade in her state, and she surprised me with one. I love black and wear it all the time, so this one is right up my alley!

New Creations

I have been playing with the new Cheep Talk and Bird on A branch set. Here's what I have come up with so far.

Friends 24-7 card

Here's a new card I have been working on today. I used the new Stampin' Up set called Friends 24-7. I just love this bird image and hoep to work with it more in the future. I also love the eyelet border punch. It's hard to see on the card, but it's totally awesome!

Pocket Silhouettes

I love, love, love this little stamp set. I have had it since the last catalog, and never used it. I was thrilled to see that it made it into the new catalog this year. This is a card I created last night with it, and I can say for sure that I will be using this set much, much more in the future! The card was embossed using the Big Shot machine using the swirls cuttlebug die to give it that added little something!

Holiday Goodies

Happy Holidays to me! Here are a few new stamps that I got for gifts from the new Tim Holtz line. I really wanted them all, but mainly because of the trees and the deer stamps. They arrived too late to make any holiday cards with this year, but hopefully I can still use them for next year's cards. These stamps combines with the new holiday grungeboard Tim has is just awesome! Check out Tim's blog and you can see his samples of tags for the 12 days of X-Mas. He has some great designs.

Thanksgiving

It's been a good while since I have posted here because it seems like I have been sick for over a month now. First was the flu, then the head cold, followed by bronchitis, and for a cherry on top I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my back! I'm finally feeling better now, and am thankful for many things such as family and friends on this Thanksgiving, but I want to say a special thanks this year to my returning health! I think the old saying is true that you don't miss something until it's gone!

Spooky Cards!

Here are a couple of cards made with a new Stampin' up Halloween set! I just love all the new Halloween stamps this year!!! The one with the haunted house was sent to me by my friend Stacey, and the green/purple one is a card I made for a Halloween swap I'm in.

Another round....

Here's my last round of ATC's for the night. The first one is rather dark, but features a little cat on a broom and the word MAGIC by Cherry Pie Art Stamps. The last one is just a very interesting image to me.... a house with eyes, and the little metal embellishment spell out the word LOOK. Alright, my desk is a mess, my fingers are inky so I'm calling it a night for now!

More ATC's

Ok-I think I'm getting the hang of it all now. However, I think I need to start adding layers and embellishments to them a bit more.

New ATC's

When I first heard of Artist Trading Cards I have to admit I wasn't thrilled. I couldn't see the big deal about these things-why not just stick to making cards I thought, but once you get into them and give them a try they are such fun little works of art!!!! Here's my attempt at a few for today! I think I am going to spend some time this weekend experimenting with more and see what I come up with.

Gifts From A Friend

I was so excited to find a wonderful package in my mailbox this week from my friend Erin! It was filled with tons of goodies that used all Stampin' Up supplies. I love that long notepad, and the little coaster post it note album. The card samples are fabulous as well. Actually that wasn't all that was in the package...she also included some rub ons, a SU cling sticker which I think I'll put on my car window, and my favorite thing was a really cool pink Stampin' Up coffee mug. Thanks again Erin, if you are reading this-you rock!!!

Grungeboard Tags

My friend Marv is hosting a grungeboard swap. I signed up, and this is my creation for it. For some reason I can't get the lighting right on this tag card today, but it uses a Tim Holtz stamp, Adirondak Color Wash spray inks, and grungeboard. I also had some new flowers arrive the other day, so I decided to use one as the background flower, and spray the other to match my tag.

New SU cards

Here are a couple of very simple to make cards using 2 new Stampin' Up sets. The first card uses brayered ink, and the set called Upsy Daisy. The second card uses a set called Crazy For Cupcakes. Just by adding a little glitter this card can add sparkle to someone's birthday!

Tim Stamps

A friend of mine was asking to see some more of the Tim stamps I have, so here are a few more. These sheets area a great deal, and are already mounted on cushion for use on the acrylic blocks! I can't wait to start using these Halloween stamps, and the sheet with the question marks has my favorite quote/saying on there-Not All Who Wander Are Lost!

I'm getting into this book stuff!!!!

I made this book for a very special DIVA, and I really hope she likes it. I had such fun making it. I used Adirondak colorwask inks to color the pages, some Tim Holtz stamps, a few other embellishments for decorating, and then I used my Bind It All machine to bind the chipboard covers, and sheets all together.

ATC Books

I have always wanted to do some ATC's, but never seemed to get around to trying them out. Recently a stamping pal of mine sent me an ATC challenge type thing where you send so many to the next person on the list, and then you are supposed to somehow end up with a bunch in the end! It looked like fun, so I have decided to participate! Anything new I try I seem to look for a book on it first to get some basic tips and hints. I found this book while in Pittsburgh the other day, and decided I had to have it. My favorite thing about this book is it describes the history of the ATC's and how they came to be! It also shows the basic materials which luckily I already have, and then naturally some fabulous artwork! So.....if you are a big fan of ATC's this book is great! I'd also love to hear from readers that can suggest some other great books on ATC's!

New Book

Tonight I was playing around with the Adirondak colorwash sprays, and decided I would make a little book. I love Tim Holtz stuff as well as Stampers Anonymous stamps, and I tried to mainly use those here.

Recent trip goodies

My latest love is rubber stamp and mixed media artist Tim Holtz. I love all his tools and techniques. This summer is they first time I have ever tried something he came out with called Grungeboard! It's a flexible sheet of material that can be painted, inked, hammered, or grunged! It's so much fun. It feel like thin leather, but it's actually paper based. It amazes me because you can't tear it! On a recent trip to Huntington, WV I found several packs of grungeboard, and it was on sale!!! I bought a couple of packs with the sheets of numbers, but with different textures. I also bought a couple of packs with only the texture, and you can use any cutting machine you have such as the Big Shot etc. to cut a shape that you want. Since Tim also came out with this cute little texture hammer for grungeboard I had to have that as well. I love that it comes with various tips to use for different textures. Next was some of Tim's stamps I have had my eye on for a bit, and natureally as soon as I buy these I hear he has just released some new ones that I am also drooling over!
Also, while in the Huntington, WV area my boyfriend surprised me with a little trip over to Kenova, WV where we had lunch at an old time soda fountain. It's been updated over the years, but still has that old time feel, and there's still a real running pharmacy inside! The food was yummy, and looking at the pictures of the area all along the walls was great! I even spotted one of The Pumpkin House, and found out the same man who owns the pharmacy lives in The Pumpkin House. The Pumpkin House is my favorite place to go see near Halloween! Each Halloween there are over 3,000 jack-o-lanterns that cover this house. The designs and creativity are just amazing to see. People from miles away come year after year to see this amazing place! Last year we were even able to take a tour out back which in the fall is set up almost like a production line. Everyone in the family helps out with some aspect of it all, and it's just a dream for a Halloween lover like me!!!