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.