Thursday, July 30, 2009

Just Swingin'

Hello friends. This card is made with a stamp from one of my favorite TAC sets. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and the shirt is paper pieced. I sponged some blue sky in, but it doesn't show in the photo. When I decide what occasion I want to use this card for I'll add a small sentiment in the lower right hand corner.
Here's a close up view so that you can see this sweet little girl better. This stamp set always makes me think of my nieces. I wish we lived closer to each other so that we could visit more often.
Blessings
  • Laughter
  • Lydia's first evening of college classes went well.
  • My phenomenal husband

Please continue to pray for our friend Lloyd. Tomorrow he's being moved to a nursing home until he becomes strong enough to go to rehab.
Have a marvelous day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Chunky Dunking

Here's my card that I thought went well with the swimsuit and sentiment stamps on yesterday's card. Kind of along the same theme. All of the stamps used on this card are from My Paper Moon. My Paper Moon has quite a few humorous sayings. I have to brag a bit and tell you that my husband, Mark, drew the pool and the little diving guy many years ago. There's also a stamp of a chubby man floating on his back.

The water in the pool has a coat of Aleene's Paper Glaze on it. It makes the water look fairly real. I made the card for a challenge called "Something Shiny". I think my pool qualifies for the shiny part. :)

To go along with my summer theme cards I've been sharing I thought I'd show you a picture of my grand dog, Caesar, wearing his sunglasses and his Gators bandana. Isn't he quite the dude?


My dog, Princess became very jealous when Caesar received his new sunglasses. She started whining for me to give her something to wear. So I got out her bling bling, which is a blue rhinestone dog necklace that Lydia bought for her. She was thrilled to have something on also. Then she came and started barking for me to take her picture, because I had taken Caesar's picture in his sunglasses. You have no idea how odd this is. Princess normally hates having her picture taken and refuses to look at the camera. As you can see in her photo, she laid down in front of me and looked right into the camera. Those two remind me so much of little kids sometimes.



Blessings

  • Fresh Produce
  • Happy Mail

Please pray for my daughter, Lydia, as she starts college tomorrow evening.
Have a terrific day!!!
Inky hugs!
Shelly


Monday, July 27, 2009

Smile or Groan

I love the stamp I used on this card. It appeals to my sense of humor. It also goes well with the card I'm going to show next time, so be sure to check back. This stamp is an Emerson Quillin by American Art Stamp. The Emerson Quillin stamps are on sale at American Art Stamp right now, so it's a good time to shop.

We get huge wood spiders in our house. I've known that we had one, because I have walked through a web that they make several times lately. One night recently at 2:51 a.m. I got up to use the bathroom. I bent to get a new roll of toilet paper out of the cupboard and felt a spider web. While I was bent over I saw several nasty spider legs curled around the edge of the bathroom vanity. It was time to wake Mark. There was a huge spider hiding in the vanity!!! So I woke him from a sound sleep and explained the problem. He went in and looked and proceeded to explain very nicely to me that those were big staples that hold the vanity front on, not big spider legs. Note to self: Wear glasses when I get up at night. (Insert sheepish smile here.) Fast forward to the next evening. I was sitting at the computer in my craft room and I saw something large move. It was not a huge spider, it was an enormous spider, the grand daddy of them all. So I scurried into the living room and informed Mark that the spider truly was in my craft room. He went in and slew the spider for me. My hero!!! Now if he can just catch the nasty skink that is in my laundry room. But that's another story.



Speaking of spiders, this is a photo of some spider webs I took when we were in NC. I like the way the webs look when the spiders are absent.


Blessings

Our friend Lloyd has been moved from critical care to a private room.

Our insurance - my heart goes out to those without it.


Have a marvelous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Soakin' Up Some Rays

I've been on a roll of making summer cards lately. This is the first of many you will see, hopefully. The card background is made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The adorable lizard stamp and his bottle of lizard oil are from Sparkle N Sprinkle. I don't know who makes the sunglasses stamp.

Here is a close up view so that you can see the detail of the stamps better. The sunglasses refelect two palm trees and a hammock stretched between them. I put Crystal Lacquer on the lenses of the sunglasses stamp and also on the lizards sunglasses lenses, but I don't know if you can see it. But you can see the real sand that I put around the lizard on the "beach".

Friday was our 28th wedding anniversary. This is a picture of us after we went out for dinner on Saturday. We were the only ones here so we had to take our own picture. That caused alot of laughter and many terrible pictures. Thank God for digital cameras. :) That also explains the cluttered background. We didn't realize we were getting all of the junk in our picture.


Blessings

  • 28 years in a very happy marriage
  • Happy mail
  • The prayers of others
  • Everything is lush, gorgoeus & green from all of our rain. The woods behind my house are so beautiful right now.


Have a fabulous day!!!

Inky hugs!

Shelly




Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A Little Humor and Exciting Happy Mail!!!

Today I'm sharing a humorous card I made. I really enjoy making humorous cards. There isn't a whole lot to tell about this card. The green background was made with the scoring blade on my Fiskar cutter back before I had a Scor Pal. The main image is cut out and adhered to the card to give it a bit of depth.


Below is a close up view, so that you can read the sentiment. :) The glass and the lady's ring have Crystal Lacquer on them.



Supplies:

Stamps: Palm Tree - My Paper Moon; Lady - Art Impressions; Sentiment- unknown

Ink: Jet Black StazOn; Deep Turquoise Nick Bantock

Accessories: Tombow Markers; Crystal Lacquer; Ribbon



I received some very exciting happy mail all the way from Indonesia. It was my blog candy that I won from Dina at Mama Dini's Stamperia!!! If you have never visited Dina's blog, you need to start now. Dina is a very talented artist and I learn so much from following her blog. She's very generous about sharing her knowledge and her blog candy too. :) Dina and her family are missionaries in Indonesia. I really enjoy hearing bits and pieces about their life there.



Below is a card that Dina made with the main image from the set of stamps that I won. Dina designed this image for Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I was just as thrilled to win one of Dina's awesome cards as I was to win the stamp set. There's nothing like having a piece of artwork from a stamp artist you really admire.


Below is a printed paper showing the sheet of stamps I won from Dina. You can see a glimpse of the sheet of rubber underneath the paper. It's deeply etched, great quality rubber. Isn't it a wonderful sheet of stamps for making cards for our soldiers and their families? I'm looking forward to working with these stamps and hopefully being a blessing to some members of our military. Thanks so very much for the fabulous blog candy, Dina.






These are a few of the Indonesian postage stamps that were on my package from Dina. Aren't they beautiful? The top stamp had a little leg punched out and sticking up from the middle of the stamp. My first thought was that one of Dina's kids must have used a punch on her postage stamps. :) Then as I looked closer I realized that these are soccer theme stamps and every single stamp is made with a peel off soccer player in the center of the stamp. There are four different backgrounds and each one has a soccer player in a diffferent pose to peel out of the center. I peeled the player out of the top stamp, so that you can see what I mean. If you look closely at the bottom stamp you can see the outline of the soccer player. These are so unique. They make our U.S. collectable stamps look tame.






Blessings

  • Mark was able to get a $22 box of medication for $10
  • Phone visits with my mom and sister
  • Caring friends
  • My blog candy


Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!

Shelly






Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Winning Card


In my last post I told you about a contest we had in a group I belong to and showed you the card that I made. Today I am showing you the winning card. This gorgeous card was made by Netta. Be sure to visit her blog, Fun with Ink, and see more of her beautiful artwork.

Also, Netta and her sister just opened a new online store called Stamping Palace. Stop by and check out all of the goodies there. They have some awesome stamps!


Last week two Pileated Woodpeckers landed in the oak tree outside my craft room window. I was talking to Mark on the phone at the time and became almost incoherent in my excitement over these huge birds that had landed in the tree. Mark had to tell me what they were. I had never seen one before. They are 15" tall! No wonder I was astonished to have them land in my tree. :) It's rare to see one and I got to see two at once. What a wonderful gift from the Lord!


Please continue to pray for our friend, Lloyd. He's still in the critical care unit. They're hoping they can replace his respirator with a trachea to make him more comfortable. He has been more alert for several days now and was able to hold Dawn's hand.


Blessings
  • My visit from the woodpeckers
  • Good news for my daughter
  • Mark's loving help with the things I can't do
  • A phone visit with a friend

Have a fantastic day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Monday, July 6, 2009

A Quick Fix

I made this card awhile back for a contest we were having in a stamp group I belong to. One of the members sent all of us this hedge hog image and we could make whatever kind of card we wanted with the image. Our card pictures were uploaded with no identification on them and then everyone in the group voted for a winner. It was a fun contest. If I receive permission to share a photo of the winning card I'll do that on another day. It is a gorgeous card and definitely deserved to win. Anyhow, back to my card. I used a card sketch to make this card. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and the edges of the image are scored with my Scor Pal. I also used double stick foam tape to pop the flowers and make them 3-D. The ribbon slide that the sentiment is stamped on is from a Cuttlebug die. The button is from my antique buttons. When I was finished with my card I didn't really care for it, but I had used the only images I had, so I went with it the way it was. However, when it came time to send the card out I still just didn't like it. So I went to work with my handy dandy old guillotine cutter and chopped the card down. Then I added some ink around the edges of the green cardstock and I had a card that I liked much better. It was something I could feel good about sending. Do you think this was an improvement or should I have left it like it was?
Here is a close up view of the hedge hog image. I think it's a Penney Black image, but I'm not positive. I added a touch of glitter in the very center of the flowers and highlighted the hedge hog's tummy and cheeks with chalk.


Supplies:
Stamps: Hedge Hog - Unknown; Sentiment - TAC
Inks: SU Pretty in Pink; Adirondack Lettuce; Nick Bantock Deep Turquoise
Accessories: Cuttlebug Ribbon Slide Die; Stickles; Scor Pal; Prismacolor Pencils; Antique Button; Craft Thread; Ribbon

Blessings
  • Happy Mail
  • Mark cleaned the carpet today
  • A great selection of books on tape at our library
  • We received some great news today!!!

Have a terrific day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly

Friday, July 3, 2009

Back From Vacation

I apologize for taking such a long break without letting you know I was going to be away. I've been battling a serious eye problem that kept me off the computer for several weeks due to light sensitivity. Then we went on vacation. While we were away I realized I should have left a note on here, but it was too late. We were without computer access.

We spent our vacation in the family cabin in NC. It's on a mountain north of Mars Hill. It's so beautiful up there. I love the ever changing "moods" of the mountains. They just fascinate me. The photo above was taken through the car window in the evening as we were going up a mountain.

The photo below was taken during the day.


This photo was taken through the car window in the early morning. Isn't the mist rising off the mountains awesome?
I took the photo of this humming bird while sitting in a rocker on the cabin porch. It's not as clear as I'd like it to be, because my camera doesn't take very good long distance shots when I need to use the zoom. Unfortunately the humming birds wouldn't come to the feeder if I got any closer.
These gorgeous lilies were just growing in the wild in the woods.
Mark took this photo of these baby robins the second day we were there.
This is the babies six days later. Isn't it amazing how much they grew and changed in that short amount of time? Their nest is becoming a tight fit.

Please pray for our friend, Lloyd. He was in an accident on his 4 wheeler while we were away. The injury they are most concerned about at this time is his head injury. Please pray for his wife, Dawn, too as she spends each day at the hospital with Lloyd, plus tries to keep up with any necessities that arise.


Blessings
  • A very relaxing vacation
  • A chance to see our good friends while on vacation
  • Safety while traveling
Have a fabulous day!!!

Inky hugs!
Shelly