I've been busy making cards.

Very very busy, making cards like crazy. Below is a picture of a very messy studio because I am not taking the time to put away whatever ink, stamp, paper or elements I dig out of their resting places. I usually don't let my studio get this bad, but I am pressed for time right here before Christmas and in the middle of doing several other things as well, like, well yes, still unpacking. I feel like that is going to take the rest of my life to accomplish but I keep working away at it.

I have a few cards now listed for sale at the local co-op SixRiversMarket.com, which is the reason my studio is a mess and why I am so busy right now. I love it; it is something I had hoped to do when I moved here. I have started with several Christmas cards but my head is swimming with so many more ideas that I would love to do but time will only allow that for next year’s Holiday season. Thus far I have made fairly simple cards just to be able to get some finished right away.

I have also started thinking about Valentine’s Day cards as well as general greetings, thank you cards, birthday’s, baby and sympathy and thinking of you cards.

So just in case I don’t get back to my blog as I had planned to do often may I now wish all of you a very Merry Holiday Season and Blessings in the New Year.

Happy Thanksgiving Week

I had hoped to get some card pictures up however my husband bought me a new computer and everything and I mean everything is different on the Windows 7 and Microsoft Office.   To start with it took five days just to get a good internet connection. First I was told I needed a new router, the old one was a G (whatever that means) and that I would now need a N since there was no new drivers to use the G with the new Windows.   So off to the closest office store to buy the N router and adapter for the desktop computer, hooked everything up and I could barely get an internet connection, we are talking as slow as dial up, twiddle your thumbs and hope the page will eventually load up.    But the older computer did a pretty fast internet connection and I was told the N router would do as good or better.   Who were they kidding?   After many hours with tech support I finally called the store where I bought the router and finally got a hold of someone who knew something, and it saved me money too.      Turns out I did not need a new router but only a new adapter which would work with the G router, and sure enough I now have a pretty fast internet speed considering I getting internet from a tower several miles away and then wireless once the cable comes into the router.

It has taken another day plus to get Outlook up and running, several tries to figure out where to put the old Outlook files so they are now in the new Outlook.      But for the most part I am now running along smoothly in the new Windows but I do miss the simplicity that XP had.     I guess Microsoft thought they were making it easier, but who did they ask - computer geeks to begin with?     Not sure I like the new Word or Outlook, though there are some cool features and perhaps once I know it better and can find my way around it I will come to like it better than the older version.    I still have a few programs to get loaded in one is Corel Paint Shop and Photo Album, hoping all that will go smoothly.

I am hoping now to get the new pictures up this week, since Thanksgiving for us this year will be a quiet affair
of just me and my husband.

May God Ceator of Heaven and Earth bring Blessings to each of  you.

Deborah

I'm Back

I am so sorry that my blog was put on the side lines these past months. It was an extremely busy summer and early fall. We worked on landscaping nearly every day till dark and still have more to do next year. Our summers are so short here in the northern Idaho. When we lived in central California Sierra Nevada Mountains at 4000 feet above sea level the summers were much longer and the fall was warm and dry with many months to work and play outside in the sunshine. It was rather dry there in the fall months for living in a forest full or trees I worried about forest fires each fall. No need for that here as it pretty much stays green most of the summer months with rains off and on. I do love the green thought out the summer months this area has to offer.

I will be posting a big variety of cards and other items I have made over the past few months within the next few days so check back to see what I have been doing. The studio is pretty much unpacked, organized and finished. Still a few things to put away yet which are sitting on the floor here and there but it is all getting done even if it is slower than I had hoped for. I am not sure if one can ever get papers organized anymore they seem to multiply overnight, but even I have gotten those into categorized piles which now need to go into folders and filed away in hopes of being able to find certain ones later on.

Next week is Thanksgiving which is one of my favorite Holidays. Thanksgiving is not as busy or hectic as Christmas, and I think it lends itself more to family gatherings especially for the host. There is more time to chat and just be with each other, sitting comfortably about the table sometimes for hours after the meal. This year it will be even quieter for us, as our Idaho children are in California and the California children aren’t coming northward. My parents are four hours south of us and we have been tossing around the idea or traveling down there depending on the weather. It snowed some this morning and next week it is supposed to be in the teens with more snow on the way. This has always been a problem with Holidays when one lives in the north as traveling is not as safe or easy in the winter months. I grew up in north eastern Oregon and there were many times we could not travel to my grandparents’ house in Vancouver Washington. Thankfully the cars of today have better winter traveling capabilities.

Thankfulness is a feeling of gratitude, to be glad for or about something. I am thankful for the family and friends that give my life color and character. I am blessed to be married to wonderful man for 40 years now. And I am grateful to God who not only created me but gave His life for me, covering my sins with His blood pardon.

May each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with blessings.

Don’t forget to check back to see some of the cards I have worked on lately.

Thanks for checking in and saying hello.

I've been MIA....

I do not know where the time took off too. I have been one busy person though. I had even found some time to do a few creative projects, get them photographed but never got back to my blog. I’m sure the thing must be feeling neglected by now.


While the basement water damage was cleaned up months ago, the unpacking and reorganizing continues onward. I have now gotten to the point where I can even get into a few boxes which never had a chance to get unpacked since moving here. Let me tell you it is like Christmas morning when I come across items I have not seen in years! These are things that were put away in boxes prior to selling the other house; you know the stuff that realtors claim you can no longer have in your house because they will distract the buyers. I say – “Buyers get an imagination, my stuff will not be in this house once you buy it! I promise.” And if I should ever have to sell this house I now live in I will post that on my front door before they even enter the house, this way they will be reminded my stuff will not be there when they are given the key. It is maddening that buyers today cannot see past another person’s stuff, are people’s visions becoming so narrow that they no longer can imagine what can be? Okay I digressed here and got on one of my soap boxes – back to today – unpacking and organizing.

Soon spring will be here I am assured of this and can imagine it though snow is expected tomorrow, I am already planning flowers, and yard clean up, rock placements and a set of stairs to be added around one side of the house. It will be another very busy summer and a short one at that – really - yes short, summers here only last at most four months, last year it was three months and then wham near zero temperatures, killed many of my potted plants before I had a chance to get them under cover and wrapped in straw.

Thanks for stopping by – I still imagine I will get the time to make something of this blog and post many artsy projects. Promise – just be patient.

Just running a test

Yes I am still trying to figure out how this all works. People have told me they have left comments and signed up for notifications of new posts but neither the comments nor the notifications are going through. So I thought I would run through the settings and see if I missed something. I couldn't find anything I need to do on my end, so here is hoping that those of you who have signed up for notification of new posts will receive this note. I do hope to get some cards posted this week since I just finished one tonight. I am not a 10 minute stamper - maybe I think things through too much.


Hope all is well in your world and with your families.

Ribbon, Ribbon and more Ribbon

Okay who isn't in love with ribbon?  Who has so much ribbon they can't use any more?  Well I for one, love ribbon and can always use more.  So here is a website where you can get ribbon, "Really Reasonable Ribbon" don't you just love the name and yes they are reasonably priced too.  Here is the link: https://www.reasonableribbon.com/   go check them out.

Time gets away from me to fast

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted! Seriously can someone figure out why it is these days time goes by so quickly. Do any of you remember when a week felt like a week as it dragged by to the next weekend? Now weeks just feel like a blur of time.

I have been able to do some card making in the past weeks not much but a few things here and there in between unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where to put the stuff.

This first card uses a technique that has come to be called “watercolor float.” After seeing it on another blog I had to try it being that roses are my favorite flower and I miss having roses living here in north Idaho. Of course after the card was finished and I scanned it I saw all sorts of other things I could have added but still it will be a nice “hello” to a lady on the church prayer list. Did I mention that most of the cards I make go to people on the prayer list; just something I hope cheers their day. I try to send one out every other week, not always does that happen but that is my goal most times. I don’t sign the cards because I don’t want anyone to know who they came from. You see a long time ago my son got real ill and someone send me a card once a week and never signed it and I think it just made it more interesting and special to receive.

Stamped images leaves and rose by Stampin' Up.

This next card was done a couple weeks ago and has already gone in the mail. Tree image is by Cornish Heritage Farms. I also saw that this card could have had other additions. Somehow seeing the card on the computer gives one a different perspective and I think I may take a quick scan or picture of each one before I actually called it finished. The trees have been embossed and then using a white gel pen I scribbled on top of the image to give it the look of snow. The area around the bottom of the trees is painted with white iridescent medium which doesn't show up in the scan.

I sent this to a good long time friend.  It was lots of fun to make.  The main image is by Cornish Heritage Farms.  The background is spounged inks.  The bear is colored in with a marker.

This next card was made for a Domino Art swap. I used a RummyO tile instead of a domino. The little leaf image is by Stampin’ Up. The background on the tile is a technique called “polished stone” using alcohol inks.

 

This card uses images by Stampin' Up!

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed seeing these cards.  Hopefully I can get more added to the blog as well as a couple watercolor paintings, which I am still learning how to do.

Card Making Day

I have finally set some time aside to make a card for a friend who took care of the house while we were gone in December. Her favorite color is sage green and she misses being able to shop at Trader Joe’s for there yummy cinnamon bread (there in not one near us here in north Idaho) so I bought her some while in CA. I also loaded up on lots of other goodies from Trader Joe’s while I was there, several hundred dollars of stuff like juice, grains, tomato soup, stew, cookies, cinnamon bread, rice milk, dish soap, and spices. I miss that store too.

If anyone out there can persuade the CEO of Trader Joe’s to build one in Coeur d’Alene I would forever be grateful. So for now I shop like a mad woman and stock up big time when I am near one. I do miss being able to have some of the cold and frozen items though.

Here is the cinnamon bread by Trader Joe’s:

Flower and stem are made with a die cut by Sizzix.

I took a REI sack that I had on hand and added the daisy label over the REI logo.
Daisy stamp by Stampington & Company. Tag stamped with Stampin Up stamp set Yummy.

Thank  you for stopping by and have a great day!

Figuring it All Out

You'd think that doing a simple blog would not seem so hard, especially considering I had a full blown web page up and running back in 2000. I took the whole web site down in 2005, time to move on to something more fun. At that time I used a HTML software and thus I was not bound by parameters. I could add, and change and do whatever I wanted to the whole of the site. I may be missing something in this little blog but for some reason I am not finding it easy to make changes too. I am sure I will get the hang of it if you will just all bare with me.


For those that don't know me I just moved a couple years ago from one state to another. One never really knows how much stuff they have accumulated until they move and if you are a crafter, stamper, scraper, sewer, wood worker, painter or any artist of any kind I can be pretty right in guessing you have collected a lot of stuff - good stuff - fun stuff - stuff you have assigned projects too albeit haven't gotten too yet but still planning on it. I raise my hand for I do all the above artsy things at one time or another and still have many plans for all my fun stuff. Can’t wait to get it all unpacked and organized and yes I am still doing some of that, it is getting better and so for this new year my plan is to have my studio and my house in order once again with lots of time then to spend on that list of “projects” using all that stuff I have collected.

Here is a picture of the most recent stuff I collected. I just received this from Twisted Papers, at www.twistedpapers.com they have lots of different ephemera. It is the same sort of stuff I look for at garage sales, thrift stores, and I have even been known to visit a junk yard or two, and not the nice ones in some warehouse either. Maybe it is the hunt for all this stuff that I love and it is the first part of the fun in making something great.

Items found are the two necklaces; the spoons (why not) clock hands, black rimmed lenses, and Bakelite dominoes. The rest of the stuff in the picture are just things on the art table which are in some degree of being worked on.

Thanks for visiting me.  Have a great day!