Happy Thanksgiving 2012

There is so much for which to be thankful and I am thankful for everything. 

Let us not use Thanksgiving Day as the only day that we give thanks. There are a myriad of opportunities to give thanks everyday. I hope you take advantage of it. I know I do.

Wanted to share a couple of pics with you of cards I made to celebrate the fall harvest. Yes, that is Spectrum Noir coloring.

As you enjoy your day with family and friends, please keep the main thing the main thing. Try not to let Black Friday deals lure you into ending your celebration early. Take the time to savor the moment and relax. 

I know many of you do shop early on Friday morning, but this cutting your dinner celebration short to get to the 6pm, 8pm and 11pm deals is a bit much. If you do choose to indulge, please be safe.

Until then.

FOUR MORE YEARS!!!

I for one am elated tonight. This has been a hard fought battle and a nail bitter for sure. 
 

Congratulations to President Obama for his dedication and perseverance and for his victory. 


It is my prayer that we can pull ourselves together and continue to move forward as a nation and support our president and the first lady. 

Regardless of your political preference we are all Americans and now have to rally around the victor and give him our full support. 

As my wonderful son commented to me just last week, politics should not destroy friendships. Out of the mouths of babes....
Until then.

Welcome Spencer

Hello everyone. After asserting for months that I did not want to adopt a puppy (we were hoping for an older dog) that is exactly what we got. This little guy just melted my heart. Spencer is from the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation and is now a member of our family.

His mother is a white/blonde lab and gave birth to a litter of 9 pups. Paternal heritage might have a bit of hound mix. Everything came together as it always does to produce this quirky character we have affectionately named Spencer. We bandied Latte about and settled on the name Zachary chose. He had a great first night with us and warmed to crate training. 

We visited Pet Smart for a number of Saturdays since last summer looking for the perfect member for our family. He found us. Spencer is mellow enough for me and playful enough for Zachary. It doesn't get any better than that. Where is that Staples button? lol.

He is three months old and weighs in at 12 pounds. I am certain that will quickly change as he has a great appetite. 

Until then.

Beach Birthday Bash

We spent Zachary's birthday celebration at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, USA.


He had wanted a party at the National Zoo but Mom was a bit slow in getting her act together. I talked him into a beach trip.


 
We invited his grandmother and a cousin who shares the same birthday as him.








The boys wore themselves out and I relaxed for a full 15 minutes.

While I was away feeding the meter they were buried in sand and had to stay that way until I returned.

Their grandmother said they wanted me to see them. I think she milked it for a break. She knew where they were and did not have to follow them. lol


Here is the card I made for his birthday. He asked for dinosaurs...really?...and I was happy to oblige. He also wanted the Dilophosaurus on his cake.

He received gift cards to Toys R Us so that will be our next stop. He went to bed eight and woke up nine. That birthday eve he said to me this will be your last hug from your eight-year-old. I hugged him; held him tightly and shed a few tears. He is growing up waaaay too fast. So long eight, it was a great year.

Until then.

Happy July Everyone. Just wanted to pop in and share a quick card I made for a birthday party we attended. The border across the top is a Martha Stewart punch.

I really kept it pretty basic by using some rub-ons on white cardstock which I trimmed around and mounted onto black. Across the center are some of the emboss and punch folders from Quickutz. The green backing paper is from WRMK paper by the pound.

Of course I had to add a bit of glitter with my Sakura pens. The inks are all Martha Stewart tear drops.

Until then.

America, it's your birthday

No way could I let this day go by without saying Happy Birthday to the United States of America. Yes, we fought the good fight for freedom but it came at a cost.

For the many men and women who fought and lived and fought and died, I thank you. I think this photo of my son from last year embodies all that I feel living here. We are proud to be Americans.

When I look to the Heavens I do ask that God send down a special blessing to us.

Happy Fourth of July 2012. Let's do this again next year.
Until then.

Happy Father's Day

I could not let this day pass without wishing all of the Dads out there a very happy Father's Day!!!  Whether you are a dad or not, if you are a man, I hope that you have been a role model and a support for someone along the way.

My students made cards for their dads using some quotes I found online. I used the Create a Critter cartridge to cut this simple frog and dog. We only had a couple of interrupted hours to put them together.

The pop-up template is from the DIY Scrapbooking show with Sandi Genovese. Not sure if the template is still available but it is quite easy to make.

 

I think they turned out  well and I know the Dads and Moms will adore them. Many of them decorated around the dad and child and their covers.

The silhouette (one boy and one girl) is from A Child's Year. Their personal message is written on a white card just in front of the critter.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until then.

Spectrum Noir

Hello everyone. I have finally gotten the opportunity to upload at least one of my Spectrum Noir colored cards. This is the one I showed for the Vee-dio. You can check it out on YouTube if you haven't already.

I have been experimenting with different paper brands and thus far my two top faves are the Borden and Riley and the Manga artist paper. I did have a new one arrive that was on back-order and hope to get to play with it this weekend. This small stamp is from the dollar bin at Michaels. I love picking up these small sentiments. The swirls are part of the stamp image. I cut it out using the scalloped rectangle nestability die.

Although my camera angles did not pick up on it, but I used the Sakura clear stardust pen to accentuate the leaf veins. I must admit that my background highlighting still needs loads of work.

The leaves on the bottom are from the same Martha Stewart set as the large focal one. I colored these in with the Sakura glaze gel pens. I love how subtle the sparkle is. Sometimes ya gotta hold back on the bling. Did I just write that? LOL

As always thanks for stopping by. Gotta go and work on something for Father's Day.

Until then.

Shenandoah Museum Upstairs

Once we exited the Caverns we were treated to a fun trip through a quasi-museum. Again I took more pictures than the law allows. These are seen as you are exiting the upstairs, but I thought I would share them first.

These are SUPER HUGE as they were part of the 1993 Rose Parade and now reside at the Shenandoah Caverns.

I love the habitat created for these furry friends.  Everything looks very realistic.

Look out Zachary, I think there is a bear behind you!!!!

This is one of my favorites. These guys were really communing with those bears. 
Will have more pictures in a couple of days so please check back. 
Until then.

One True Diva

NJDebbie hosted a Chop Challenge for our Yahoo Group. I used her five ingredients to create this easel card. The dress form is Spellbinders and is cut from American Crafts Foil/Metallic paper. Love that stuff. It cuts like butta!!!

Here is a close up of the tail of the dress. The black backing was traced from the tree and cut with a small border showing. I used the tree and spritzed it with Tattered Angels Olive Vine Spray mist. Next came the pearls from Kaiser Kraft and Queen&Co.

The black felt flowers are Queen&Co. The papers are Basic Grey and the White embossed card is from Provo Craft folder. More deco than I like but it works.

I hand wrote the sentiment and stamped and embossed the DIVA. Both were cut using the Spellbinders Pennant Die set.

Love this little flower. It is actually from a longer string of flowers that I got from a swap (I think). Just had to use it. I did create a Vee-dio going a bit more into detail.
Until Then.

The Caverns--Shenandoah

I have so many photos to share of our scouting trip to the caverns. Although I took loads of them, you can only see so many before you start to yawn. I thought I would share some of the more striking photos.

Enjoy!

I truly thought this natural formation to be very interesting. Did not realize how much until I posted it here. Hmmmm.

This is the Bishop close-up. It is only about 3 feet tall. When you are far away on the other side of the cavern he appears to be about 7 feet tall. Tried to get a good picture but with my tripod, it was not possible.

This was definitely a fun trip for me and it was not too cold all of those feet underground. Again, I took lots of photos but will spare you. Up next will be some pictures of the museum upstairs from the caverns.

Until then.

Altered Gift Boxes

Oh, my poor, neglected blog. I have been so busy with so many things that I have not taken the proper time to update my blog. I will try to make amends by posting some stills of the altered Crate & Barrel boxes I did for a wedding shower. The front was made using the Martha Stewart Twirl Loop Border Punch.

They are from a Vee-dio that I did and you can watch the final results live on YT. 

This is also American Crafts: Truly Inspiring. The black damask print is quite elegant when paired with the pink.

While I had out my supplies, I also put together a card from the same paper stack: American Crafts Dear Lizzy Collection.

This was a lot of fun for me to do and it looked so pretty sitting with all of the other gifts. 

The tags were quite cute. I simply recovered the black and white Crate & Barrel tag and replaced their string with some satin Anna Griffin ribbon.

Thanks for taking time from your busy, hectic schedule to stop by to see what I have been up to.

Until then.

Happy Birthday, Mama

This is probably the hardest post I will ever create. It is to wish my mother a happy birthday. Had she lived she would have turned 75 this month on this day. It has taken me a year and a half to refer to her in the past tense.

My mother, was diagnosed with colon cancer and was delivered from it. That cancer monster came back and reared it's ugly head on one of her organs. She elected to undergo treatment and was actually doing well, but suffered a stroke in the process. Without taking any treatments, she rapidly declined and took her final breath on August 18, 2010.

I miss her dearly and still reach for the phone to call her to share my ups and downs. She was my mother who morphed into my best friend. We did so many things together. I fondly remember our trip to Vegas to visit my brother and sister-in -law. I was so glad she went on that vacation with me. We had the best time. 

When I was home I took some photos of some of her collections and will post them here. Stay tuned for an update.

Of all the tributes I have ever done, this one took the most energy from me but has been worth every keystroke. Very cathartic and cleansing. I know that she is in the bosom of the Lord and that brings me great comfort.

Happy Birthday, Mommy.
Until Then.

Happy Birthday Maestro

I would not be a loyal fan if I did not take the time to wish the one and only Luther Vandross Happy Birthday. This man's voice was unparalleled.

Just to hear the passion in his unique sound. It is a shame that it took 15 years for us to recognize and acknowledge his vocal abilities. 

It has been almost seven years since his soul departed for Heaven.

Talk about an unsung hero, Luther Vandross would be that hero. Thank you for your talent, your time and your gift.

Rest in peace, Mr. Balladeer, Mr. Vandross.

Until then.

Furry Friends Visit Our Backyard

I just had to do a quick post on the Red Fox ( a Virginia native) and her six cubs who had a great romp in our backyard this morning. I was at the sink washing dishes when I spied her.

Of course I grabbed both cameras and started filming. The only drawback was that my son what not there to see it. I had to capture the moment for him. He will be thrilled. I snapped some photos to scrap in the home mini album that Laura gifted us with. What a great moment to remember.

Thought I would share it with you. The best part was when all six cubs started to nurse at the same time. No, I will not be going near that shed anytime soon and yes, it probably needs to come down. I don't use it. LOL

Until then.