We're all mad here

This smash page feels like my life the last week or so! 

Can you see that it reads "we're all mad here"?

I finally (FINALLY!!!) got some crafting done yesterday!

It meant giving up 4 hours of overtime at work, but I think it was well worth it!

I also got to hang with some of the fab girls from the art group!

Yeah for crops! Even if I don't really scrapbook!

Sooooo a few weeks back I won the challenge at the Octopode factory!

My prize was some digi's, and I happened to pick some of the 

Alice in wonderland images she has in her shop!

Then LO and behold, out comes a mad tea party challenge! 

So I've been trying to get this smash page done for two weeks! 

And now I'm right under the wire!

Hope you like what I've done! Hop on over and check out some of the 

Other fabulous (and I sincerely mean FABULOUS!) entries!

You can find those Here

I'm also entering this page into the Metal accents challenge at dilly beans!

Another one of my most favorite challenges!

A little getaway

I know I've pretty quiet the last week, 

Today I'm gonna share a little of what we've been up to!

For Christmas my parents got us a getaway groupon to a hotel in flagstaff, az.

We've been trying to use it, and this week it just worked out just right!

As we were arriving in town the snow had already started moving down! 

I was terrified to drive in the snow, so hubby took over. 

He did an amazing job!

We ate dinner at a place called granny's closet, it was a cute sports bar with great grub!

Then hubby took me to Joann's and michaels while he hung out at a couple 

of used book/ music stores.

I wasn't too impressed with my stores, but found a cool scrapbook book in his store!

We headed back to our room, where there was a fireplace to snuggle by.

The next morning hubby was on a mission to see the nau (northern arizona university) campus.

So as the sun was bright and beautiful, we ventured out. 

This pic was taken in front of the nau stadium! And yes, hubby is in shorts!

He forgot to bring long pants, but he was a real trooper!

The stadium was open, with lots of people running inside. Oh, it's a dome, 

so it was toasty warm inside.

I was able to stop by the only scrapbook store in town, were I met the wonderful owner, 

And I got some fun new products that I can't wait to break out!

This fabulous tree was right outside our hotel room, and I just had to take a pic!

Then we ventured around the city for a while. Eventually we hit the outskirts of town, and hubby pulled into a museum parking lot. And there sat this very cool old tractor!

I hopped on out and took a pic! 

The snow was just starting to melt from the sun, and I was fascinated by the dripping icicles!

My grandfather was a farmer, and would have loved this picture, I'm sure of it!

Finally after all our trekking around town, we were both getting hungry,

And I was getting grumpy!

So we stopped into a fabulous little place called Salsa Brava!

 Come to find out it was featured on diners drive ins and dives a few years back! 

I totally had food envy when hubs got their award winning carnitas! 

We fenagled the recipe out of the waitress, and I'm excited to try to recreate it! 

After lunch we were getting tired, so we headed home! 

Then took an early evening nap! 

Anything But a Card: Tie it up Reminder

Wow, it's been a really quiet bloggy week for me!

I do appologize... I do love sharing my creations, but the only time I've had for crafting

has been for some of my DT commitments,

and I can't share those quite yet!

Plus I've been trekking to the hospital a few times as my Great Aunt had a stroke.

She seems to be doing well, but needs to be in a rehab center for a while.

Prayers are of course appreciated :)

However this quickie post is just to remind you all that the challenge is still going strong over

at the Anything But a Card Challenge blog.

Ohhhh how fun it is to use twine and jute, and string, and yard, and all those fab products!!! 

Hope you all are getting ready for Valentines day!

I know I still need to come up with a fab idea.

A few years ago I made up a bottle with lots of different date ideas in it.

Hubby and I still pull it out from time to time.

In fact, maybe that would be a fun date for V day!  

The crafters cafe: still anything goes!

Happy Wednesday Bloggers!

It's the final week of the Anything goes Challenge at The Crafters Cafe

This is a month long challenge, and who doesn't love Anything Goes???

For my contribution this week I am also playing along with Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013!

I missed a few months last year, and hope to be able to play along with most of them this year!

And this month I happened to have just about all the products that he used!

SOOOOOO it seemed to be fate!

I am just loving this stamp from Unity Stamps, I also used their chicken coop stamp!

You guys know I love this style....

I do wish I had used the lighter colored tag, but hey, you live and learn right??

Hope you have a happy hump day!  We're half way to the weekend...

or if you're me this is my Monday!! 

A quick ATC

Happy Tuesday!

Today a quick post with an ATC

For the embellish it challenge at Wicked Wednesday atc

Plus I got to play with my new die cut! Yeah! 

Hope you enjoy!

Anything but a card: Tie it up!

Happy Sunday morning!

It's been a fast work week for me so far, and I had some time to craft when hubby was at work,

and before I had to go to work myself!!

There is a new challenege over at Anything But a Card 

it's to use Twine, or jute, or some sort of string like product!

I have been getting back into my smash book

(Especially since my friends Mary and Holly have changed Smash club to my Wednesdays off!)

Sooo I've had these pics hanging out in my craft room since April of last year...

About time to smash them!!

See where I used the twine in the middle of the doily??

I just love it!!

Here's a close up!

I added the star button from my stash!

Here's a close up of the pic of my dad... this by the way is right outside the Entrance to the Grand Canyon!

Dad wanted to stop and get his pick with Smokey!

I'm not about to tell him no!

What a fun trip!!  After a day at the Canyon we spent a morning in Williams, AZ,

and then a long afternoon in Flagstaff!

It was a lot of fun! 

See the cute little stamp on the bottom corner?? That's from Unity Stamps!

I just love all the fun stamps I've gotten from that fabulous site!

I hope you've been inspired to link up your creations!!! 

Stamping on a coffee cup

Happy weekend!!!

Well for some of you I guess..

I appologize in advance for the horrible pictures...

For some reason this project just would not photograph very good.

I used one of my Unity Stamps to stamp on a plain ceramic coffee cup

that I picked up at the dollar store.

I used my Staz-on black ink to stamp, and I'll tell you now that it was

a bit time consuming/ frustrating... as I seemed to smear it quite a few times.

I used my Ranger Blending Solution to "erase" the mistakes!

Once I was finally happy with a stamping I colored in the socks using a permanent marker

Then I stamped the sentiment on the other side, and set it in a cold oven

Turned the oven to 350, and baked it for about 30 min

then I turned the oven off, and cracked the door open.... and I went shopping

when I got home the cup wa all ready to come out and be used!!!

This is also a present for my friend Steph...

After all... Life really is too short to match socks!!!

(mine are literally all in a bunch in my sock drawer!)

Happy Friday my bloggy friends!

My try at Shabby chic

Happy Thursday!

I have another fun bookmark to share with you all today!

This will round out the "set" of bookmarks I've made for my work pals!

There is also a new challenge up over at Saturated Canary Challenge today!

"Movie Inspiration"

And the whole time I was making this bookmark I was thinking of "you've got mail"

So even though it's very hard to see, behind that pretty heart is a "post mark" stamp...

That also happens to be rather old!

Soooooo my movie inspiration is "You've got mail"

Ok, ok ok, so the title of this post is.... my try at shabby chic...

I am not at all happy with this being shabby chic, but it was a shot in the dark!

I know shabby chic is usually pink and blue, and cream

I think I nailed the pink and the blue, but the cream is not usually in my color palette, and well,

it was good to try something new, even if it didn't succeed how I'd like!

That shabby chic challenge is running over at Our Creative Corner for just a few more hours!

Here is a close up of the coloring I did....

I just realized that the litt boy's shoes bled a little....

I hope you like what you see....

I also have a big announcement to share with you all....

I was very rescently accepted onto Angie Delarie's design team!

I am sooo very excited to be working with a very talented bunch!!!

So come back here next week when I share my first creation with a new set of digi's that

she's coming out with!

Well you could come back sooner as I have some super fun posts

all set for this weekend!!! 

Entering this into:

A Blog Named Hero: golden Oldie (that would be the heart stamp in the background)

Try it on Tuesday: Get Stitchy, Real or Faux



Denami design blog hop/ anything but a card challenge

Hello hello hello!!!

You should have come from Deb's blog if you're hopping in here,

then hop on over to Denami's Design blog for a full rundown of all participants!

I am soooooo excited to be participating in the Denami Design Washi Tape Blog hop today!

AND today is DT day for Anything But a Card!!! Where the challenge is things with Wings!

For your perusing pleasure I've created a couple of coasters

Using a piece of old paper I ran strips of washi next to eachother...

I then stamped on top of those strips with my Denami butterflies

they were fussy cut out, and then glued onto the coasters.

A little bit of distress stain along the sides of the coasters, and a layer of

Glossy accents on the top finished these little beauties off!

Here's a close up of the larger butterfly,

and of the grouping of smaller ones!

Then I got really adversome, and also created this super easy card!

Also using washi tape...

These quick stamps are and easy to use with my staz-on black ink,

I colored up the butterflies with my Copic markers, added a strip of washi,

and the Denami Design "thinking of you" stamp (but I masked off the "you" on the stamp)

and added the you in large pretty glittery letters!

And while this is very good for the Denami Hop, this sort of project won't fly at anything but a card!

However please hop over there and check out all the wonderful DT creations!

Your next stop on the hop is someone I'm a huge fan of Miss Pauline from Pretty Pink Posh

(oh how I love her 10 minute craft dash!)

I hope you love what you've seen so far! 

Excited!

Super excited about this........

 Yep!!!  Tomorrow is the big Wonderful Washi blog hop at Denami Design 

So come on back tomorrow morning and check out all the amazing entries!  

I know I ADORE washi, and can't wait to see what everyone had come up with! 

Oh yeah, and if I didn't mention, I'm a participant this month! 

A bookmark for Steph

Happy weekend!!!

Well maybe for some of you it's the weekend...

I still have work tonight and tomorrow night...

I'm super excited about the Bronco's game tomorrow!!

I'm all decked out in my Bronco's gear at work tonight!

And I know I won't get much sleep as the game is on early!

Ok, ok, ok so today I took an hour (or two) and created another bookmark

The one I brought for my work friend Sasha was such a hit that all the girls now HAVE to have one!

So I created this one for my dear friend Steph, who is almost never without her cuppa coffee!

I handed her a stack of digi's I had printed out, and she

of course picked out this super cute Saturated Canary digi!

And who am I to say no??

The sentiment stamp is from Unity stamps, and I'll be linking her up next Friday (the 18th)

for their Friends with Flair!

I love love love that stamp, especially since it has my word for the year BELIEVE in it!

First thing I did when I got up today was run to the mailbox hoping it would be there!

And it was!

Ok, so I finally took some time last night and watched a youtube tutorial on coloring hair...

I am so much happier with how the hair turned out....   Still a work in progress, but much better!

Here's her close up!

My only regret with this bookmark is that I covered up some of the cool stamping that I did...

Behind the digi there is an image of a bicycle, and the eiffle tower...

Seeing the eiffle tower is a dream of mine... Oh how I want to go to Paris one day...

And the bike, well it's sorta french, but it's a definite goal of mine to get in better shape this year!

Steph seems to love the bookmark, so I hope you all do too!!!

Entering this into:

Tuesday Alchemy: hopes, dreams, and or resolutions

Crafty Bloggers network: Flowers

Paper Crafting Journey: Anything Goes

The Studio Challenges: New Beginnings

Cut it up Challenges: In with the New (new stamp, and the paper the stamp is stamped on is new for me from Basic Grey!)

It's my party

Happy Thursday all my bloggy friends!

I had a snippet of time to craft today, and I went at it!

My girlfriend Sasha was admiring a bookmark I was using at work last night, and

she showed me her bookmark.... it was an old napkin!

That simply is not acceptable, so I let her rifle through my digi's and she pointed out this one

from Saturated Canary.

This of course immediately brings to mind the song "It's my Party" by Leslie Gore.

I colored her up using my copics, prismacolor markers, and a bic fine tip sharpie!

I die cut her out, and also the little sign is a die cut as is the heart!

The graphic black and white background was some tissue paper that DH was gonna throw away... I saved it from a life of misery in a landfill!!! 

Here is the close up of the digi!

I'm still struggling with coloring hair....

I hope you like what you've seen today!

Entering this into:

Saturated Canary: Song Inspiration

The Pink Elephant: Celebrate

Robyn's Fetish Challenge: Anything Goes

The Corrosive Challenge: Out with the old (I'm saying the tissue paper saved from the landfill counts??)

Flutter By Wednesdays: Anything Goes (must have a butterfly or fairy)

Desert Islands Crafts: challenge 45 (Party, something new, glitter, black white + 1 other color, anything but a card)

Winter wonderland

This fun card was created yesterday, but I couldn't get a good pic at night, so here he is today!

The image is from Octopode factory, which is my newest digi obsession

I was lucky enough to win their challenge last week, and couldn't wait to play along again this week!

The challenge this week is It's snowtime

I already had the snowman colored, and I've been playing with my alcohol inks this week,

So I figured I'd just keep it up!

So the blue background is alcohol inks, and also perfect for the January blues challenge at

Cupcake Craft Challenges!

Then I saw the Use ribbon challenge at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges,

So I added the sparkly ribbon!

Which of course then I had to add some sparkly glitter embossing to the snowman 

(Hard to see but it's wherever there's blue on him!)

This of course picked up challenges for Sparkle shine or glitter at crafty sentiments,

And Make it sparkle at Use it Tuesdays!

Finally, here's the close up of mr snowman!

Which snowman is the challenge at Dilly Beans and Chocolate coffee cards

And finally a winter wonderland challenge at Love to create where I'm putting my name in the hat for a GDT spot! (Wish me luck!)

The pretty purple button was added as part of the Shopping our stash old buttons challenge!

Which of course led me to add the very very old snaps as well... 

Which are sort of a kind of button too I guess?

So there you have it! This is how I think when I'm in challenge mode! 

I love playing along with all of them because it gives me motivation to use the things I have in the craft room already! Which is the alcohol inks to me! 

And the challenge at Simon says stamp and show!

He he he had to sneak that last one in there! 

Oh yeah, and the background snowflakes are a fun stamp I got for FREE from Unity Stamps!  Yeah!

Have a crafty Wednesday!

Crafters cafe anything goes challenge

Good morning!

The newest challenge over at The crafters cafe is anything goes!

How easy is that???

Sooooo I'm sharing a card I made for my dear friend Mel! 

Obviously the image is of tinker bell!

It's actually a wall application sticker that I found at my local Good Will

I got it on half price day for a measly 30 cents! 

I love how its shiny, and I know you can't tell, but it's also raised just a bit!

For the background I used my glossy paper, and alcohol inks...

Wow it's been a while since I used them!

I used some glimmer mist, and some paint spatters too! 

Then some stamping and more spattering! 

Finally I added tink and some flowers!

I love the little saying!

Are you dust worthy?

Inside is a birthday sentiment since this is a birthday card!

Hope you're having a crafty mid week! 

Hope you join us at crafters cafe!

How do you organize your challenges?

Soooo I loooove challenges!

I love being able to combine a number of crafty endeavors into one completed work!

I love making my embellies too!

I digress! Soooo my question is... If you are like me and you play along with lots 

Of challenge blogs... How do you organize them?

This is my way... I make a list with the challenge and the due date...

Yep, that's pretty much it! 

Of course I end up with these lists all over the place.

So I've finally wished up and now I add the date the list was made to the top of... The list!

Yes, as you can see from the pic, I'm also checking my grocery ads at the Same time!

It's my type a personality, and the fact that I'm so far behind on things around the house.. Due to being sick!

Thanks goin out to hubby who cleaned AND cooked for me yesterday!

Today I'm back up and around! 

Mostly waiting for the repair guy to come fix our garage door spring!

But hopefully putting my list to use! 

Have a crafty day! 

I hope to have another post later!

I've smashed

I know it's been a while since I smashed.

I get busy with other pursuits... But I just love the smash!

And what's better to smash than my babies?

I'm getting my inspiration (and those cute dog digi's) from 

The alley way stamps.

Find that challenge Here... I flipped through my blue smash book till I found this

Orange page... Perfect for the inspiration! Plus the inspiration page has lots of penguins...

I have lots of doggins! 

Here's a close up of the right side page

And the left side page! 

Sierra always gets the shaft cause she's the shyest...

But not today in the smash! She gets her own page! 

Happy smashing today!

My first venture into polymer

Good afternoon dear blogger friends.

A quick post today as I'm sick and probably should be getting back in bed..

This is my first venture into polymer clay.

I stamped it with a new stamp I picked up from unity stamps.

If you can't read it, it says create..

Fun and pretty, after baking for 30 minutes, and letting it cool 

I attached it to a piece of leather I had laying around.

Fun and easy!

I'm linking this up to Friends with flair at the unity stamp shop blog!

Go check out these awesome stamps!

Off with their heads!

My sleeping schedule is pretty messed up right now!

Sooooo I figured I'd head to the studio and make myself a bookmark for my

"New to me" devotional!

Maybe the queen of hearts doesn't belong in a devotional, 

But I was so inspired by watching the old cartoon version last week that

I just had to use this image from 

The ocode factory, and create create create!

There are a lot of new products at use on this bookmark!

The stamps are all new to me, and even the stencils were a descent find at michaels!

Quick, fun, and best of all my fingers are full of paint and ink! 

YES!

Here's a close up!

Entering her into: the anything goes challenge at The Octopode Factory Challenge

And the New Year, New You challenge at A Blog Named Hero

"New something" challenge at Simon says stamp challenge

New stash at Try it on tuesdays

Something old, something new at Bearly mine challenges

Tea party challenge at Simon says stamp and show

Anything goes at Crafty creations

Craft Room Challenges: Make a Tag

Paper issues: Right here, right now

One little word

I don't make bew years resolutions...

But I've seen quite a few of my crafty friends posting their 

One little word...

 I love this idea! A word to live by for the year...

Sooo here is mine....

BELIEVE!

Soooo many words and phrases go in front of or behind this little word...

But it all comes down to this word in the end! 

If you're like me and don't make resolutions, do you have a word for yourself this year? 

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God,

and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved."

Romans 10:9-10 (NLT)