Where oh Where have I been?

Hello  my friends!  I have been such a bad blogger lately.  I’ve just had some personal issues that have been taking a lot of my time lately.  The good news is – things are improving, and I hope to get back to making cards real soon!

In the meantime, if you’d like to see what creative endeavour I am persuing at the moment, check out my other blog.

Thanks so much for sticking by me, and for your kind comments and emails.  You have no idea how much they mean to me right now. 

The Humble Pie Bakers have been busy in the kitchen this week, too, AND, we are offering a surprise giveaway this week for ALL participants of this week’s challenge!  Check it out here!

Humble Pie Friday on Saturday ;)

Hello my friends!  I’m a day late, a dollar short, with this post.  Yesterday was Challenge Friday over at Humble Pie Stamps.  

We have THREE big pieces of news to share. First, a big thank you to everyone who participated in our BLING Challenge! We had the best turnout yet, with 25 submissions! TWENTY-FIVE! Which means we’re also VERY happy that we don’t have to choose a winner from the amazing projects, but we rely on random.org to do the dirty work for us.

That said, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Bling Challenge….. congratulations to LISA! Your snowman card was adorable! Lisa, please send your mailing information to Phebe so she can get your prize sent out, and thank you so much for playing along!

Our next piece of news involves a GUEST in the Humble Pie kitchen! We are very pleased to welcome Bonnie to our team for the next four weeks! We love Bonnie’s work, and we’re so pleased she’s agreed to join us!

And last, but not least, we have a brand new challenge for you today. The theme? LOVE! Use RED, PINK and WHITE, and you MUST include hearts somewhere on your creations! The use of Humble Pie stamps is not required, but if you have them, we’d love to see them! So click on over to the Humble Pie Stamps blog to see the love the bakers created this week.  If you play, you could win a prize!

Humble Pie Friday!

I don’t have much to say today, but at least I have SOMETHING to say!  lol  I know…I’ve been a bad blogger lately.  I’ve been taking an online mixed media painting course, with Julie Prichard, (she is being featured in this month’s issue of ART Journaling!)  I am totally LOVING this course!  I’ve always wanted to know how to get some of the effects I often see on art journal pages, and now I’m learning it!  It has been therapeutic for me, to learn a new art.  I definitely need some ways to deal with the stress of my life these days!  If you want to see the results of my first few lessons of Layer Love, check out my other blog.  That’s the good news.  The bad news – it doesn’t leave me much time for stamping!  But, the Bakers over at Humble Pie Stamps have been busy!  Today, as per every Friday, we announce the winner of last week’s challenge, and offer up a new challenge, with a prize!

  This week’s challenge is to use AT LEAST TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF BLING on your creations. Think of the possibilities! Jewels/rhinestones, pearls, Stickles/glitter, shimmery paper, Glimmer Mists, shiny metal objects/charms, shimmery ribbons and trims, and the list goes on! Remember, at least two DIFFERENT types (so a ton of rhinestones won’t quite work, but add some silver ribbon and we’re in business!).   Easy peasy, right?  So click on over to Humble Pie Stamps and see some fabulous samples of blingified cards, and show us what you can do!

That’s all for today.  As always, thank you so much for stopping by!

Challenge Friday at Humble Pie Stamps!

I can’t believe it’s been THREE WEEKS since I posted on this blog!  Where does the time go?  I have had a lot of family issues to deal with over the holidays, so no time to scrap!  I have been working in my art journal, tho.  If you are interested in taking a peek, I’ve started an art journaling blog here.  I don’t think I have had any visitors yet, so I would love it if you’d leave me a comment!  Art journaling is extremely therapeutic for me, but it takes a lot of courage to share some of my innermost thoughts and feelings with the world!  I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it, but so far, I have only received positive, supportive comments.  If you’d like to know more about this newfound (to me) art, there is lots of info out there – just google art journaling and you’ll find all kinds of videos, blogs, and message boards.  Okay, enough about that.  I actually made a card this week, for the Humble Pie Stamps blog challenge!  This week, we were asked to use flourishes on our cards.  Easy peasy!  Especially since m bud, Angie, gave me tons of fabulous flourishes for Christmas!

Here’s my card:

I inked up my Maggie stamp for this card (available exclusively at the Town Scrapper) – using Memento ink.  I coloured her with my Prismacolor Pencils and OMS, and Copic markers.  I got that fabulous paper from The Town Scrapper, but I cannot recall whose it is!  The flowers are by Prima, the centres are by Heidi Swapp (been in my stash for ages!), and the blingy flourish is from Dollarama!  How cool is that?

So, that’s all for today – be sure to check out the Humble Pie Stamps blog, and play along with this week’s challenge.  You could win some fabulous goodies from the Town Scrapper!

Last Minute Christmas Cards

Hello my friends!  I cannot believe it is Christmas week already!  Does it seem like Christmas has come VERY quickly this year?  I guess that happens at MY age, eh?    Anyway, even though it is almost too late to make Christmas cards, I thought I would share a few of the ones I made.  This is not even close to all of them, and these aren’t my “best” work, because I was so late getting them made this year.   But, they were quick, so I figured if anyone else needed to make some quick cards, I just may have some inspirational ideas for you. 

The key, for me, was to buy all co-ordinating paper and embellishments.  I chose Basic Grey’s Eskimo Kisses…so *yummy*!  I also got some papers and goodies from Phebe at The Town Scrapper, which I used up first.  I didn’t get a chance to photograph many of those cards, as I had to get them to my friend, who ordered 25 cards from me!  I had another friend who ordered 15, and I had to make 60 for me to send….whoah!  That’s a lot of Christmas cards.  Next year, I’m going to start making them in August!

So, here you go.  I may still post a few more, so keep checking back!

Merry Christmas!

Humble Pie’s Last Challenge of the Year

Hello my friends!  I’m a couple of days late posting this.  We post challenges *with prizes* every Friday over at the Humble Pie blog.  This week, the challenge is to make a bookmark or tag!  We thought it would be a good idea to keep it fairly simple, and practical at the same time!  If you’re like me, you’re probably still running around trying to get all those last minute gifts wrapped.  AND, you’ll need some tags, right?  Well, click on over to the Humble Pie blog for some inspiration from the bakers!  AND, if you participate in our challenge, you could win a prize!  You have until New Years Eve - Thursday, December 31 to enter, because the HP Kitchen is closing up shop for the Christmas Holidays.

Here’s what I came up with for this week’s challenge.  I made a couple of 3×3 gift “cags”.  LOL!  Get it?  card/tag - cag or tard…I crack myself up!

 

I used my favourite Humble Pie Maggie stamp (available from the Town Scrapper) for these cags, and coloured them with my Copics.  I also added some white flocking, which is difficult to see in the photo.  I used some red Liquid Pearls for the Christmas lights, and added a little bling with my Copic Spica marker.  The patterned paper on the card on the left is from The Little Stamp Shoppe.  I like to support the smaller/local companies, and Heidi’s Little Stamp Shoppe just happens to be one of them.  She’s Canadian, and sells “So Jolly” paper sampler sets, which is where the paper for this cag came from.  The other card is BG Eskimo Kisses.

So, that’s all for today!  I am STILL making Christmas cards!  lol  I did snap some pics of some of them, so I will be posting them.  Maybe I’ll give you some inspiration to help you out with your last minute cards! 

Simple, Special, Stunning!

It is time for the December edition of Simple Special Stunning at the SheetLoad of Cards blog, featuring samples by Denise Wallace.

Each month one of our artists will share three different cards that use the current layout. Each card is a “step up” from the previous one, but they are all fabulous. It is a good way to show how SheetLoad is geared toward papercrafters of all levels.

Here are some sneak peeks to whet your appetite…

I had to LAUGH OUT LOUD!

Hello my friends!  Well, I have most of my Christmas cards finished, so I’ll be sharing some soon!  In the meantime, I thought I’d share a photo with you.  We recently went on a vacation, and met some of the most fabulous people!  One of the couples we met are the most active 50+ people I have ever met!  I have to tell you…they never stopped!  I am sure they took every fitness class offered at the resort, played tennis twice every day, and Don swam hundreds of laps in the pool, to help to rehab a recent hip replacement!  Well, in addition to their energetic and kind personalities, Don is also a fabulous photographer!  Oh, and did I mention he’s also a tennis instructor, and a fantastic player (even with a bad hip!).  So, he took some pictures of me (without me even realizing it!).  This one is hilarious!  I’ve heard of “keeping your eyes on the ball”, but….

How about keeping your NOSE on the ball?  LOL!  I hope you had a little giggle on me today!

It’s That Time of Year…

I cannot believe how quickly Christmas is coming!  OMG!  I still haven’t finished my Christmas cards *blush*.  I had a couple of orders to fill for other people, so I finished those, and was totally DONE making Christmas cards lol.  I didn’t take any pictures of any of the cards I made for other people, because I was so late finishing them, that I ran out of time!  I’m back at it tonight, so I will try to post some cards this week.  But I’d rather be zendoodling!  I am so addicted to this!   So, I thought I’d share a couple more of my doodles…I know, they’re a bit weird, but they are so much fun to do! 

What’s a ZENTANGLE?

Hello, my friends!  Is anyone ready for Christmas?  I’m not.  We haven’t even put our tree up yet!  I still have Christmas cards to make and mail (yikes), and gifts to buy and wrap.  Oh well…lots of time…that’s what this season is all about, right? 

It seems that every year about this time, I get bored with card making and scrapbooking, and delve into some other creative outlet.  I’ve made jewellery, played with polymer clay, started several art journals, and now found ZENTANGLING!  LOL

I love to buy magazines.  I hardly ever read books any more, but I read and re-read all kinds of magazines!  One that I have recently found is called “Cloth, Paper, Scissors“.  It’s a mixed media art magazine.  Last month’s issue had an article about Zentangling, which started me on the road to this fun and relaxing art form!  What is zentangling?  “Drawing repetitive patterns as a means of meditation” – one way to describe it!  It’s more like artsy doodling!  ANYONE can do it….that’s the fun part!  Not everyone will WANT to do it, but anyone can do it if they want to!  All you need to get started is a writing instrument and some paper!  I am using my Moleskine sketch journal, and I have a few different markers – anything works, but my favourite is my Faber-Castell Pitt artist markers.  But, in a pinch, a ball point pen will work!

The author of the article in Cloth, Paper, Scissors – Sandy Steen Bartholemew has an awesome blog, and even offers weekly sample “tangles” (Tangle of the Week) to get you started, and inspired, complete with instructions!  There’s even a Zentangle website - they sell products and kits to get you started, and explain what this art is all about!

So, I’ve been debating about sharing my Zentangles on my blog.  After all, I started blogging to share my scrapbooking, cardmaking, and PAPERCRAFTING…Zentangles are a form of papercrafting, right?  So, here goes…a few of my fave Zentangles:

I called this one “An Octopus’s Garden in the Shade” – that old Beatles tune was running through my head for DAYS…

So, what do you think?  Weird?  Cool?  Dr. Seuss-ish?  Let me know what you think.  AND, if you try it, link me up!  I’d love to see your ZENTANGLE!