It's so hard to say goodbye

Hello my crafty friends. Time sure does fly past quickly when you are not looking. My year has been very hectic.
I did have the good fortune to have a student teacher intern for this school year. Can I say she is fabulous? I love her energy, excitement and new ideas. 

With little time to spare I created this card using her favorite shade of pink and yes those are the MS paper clay flowers adorning the centers.

Also, I created these cards for her to use as the need arises. They are a variety of sentiments. To keep it simple for me I kept the same format and simply changed up the embellishments.

Until next time.

Thank You Cards

Hello everyone and Happy New Year. We have been in the grips of a frigid winter this year. After that ideal summer weather we had, I told all who would listen that we were in for a very rough winter and we are indeed.

You would think with school being cancelled I would get more done. That has not happened. I am feverishly working on uploading projects and teaching Vee-dios so bear with me. The best is truly yet to come.

During the Christmas season I received a slew of gifts and decided to cut into some of that gorgeous Anna G. paper and use every tiny bit that I could. I used stickles and pearls and rhinestones to give them a festive sparkle.

These are a few of the creations I made using some of my neglected Spellbinder dies. Since they are very intricate, I did use wax paper to make removal easier. Although it may not show, I embossed some of the pieces just for added texture and interest.

For these I incorporated a bit of black for drama and hand wrote the Thank You using a Sakura white gel pen.

 

The flowers used here are soooo old. I ordered them years ago from QVC and decided to put them to use. Again, I am NOT a flower girl and have a hard time incorporating them into my projects. I did some others where I took quite a risk and stepped out of my comfort zone. The pictures I took of them were not quite up to par. Will try to shoot them again and upload them here.

Thanks for stopping by.
Until then.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1962 Speech in NYC

My son and I were desperate to find this speech once we heard the announcement it had been found. Thank you to the pack rats out there.



More than that I want to say, Thank you to Dr. King for keeping it real. What I enjoyed most about this version of the speech I am sharing with you is that the original or one of the edited versions plays alongside the given speech. I like that I am able to see his train of thought and hear how the words were changed for greater impact or subtle nudging.



Yes, we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.



I am truly looking forward to the day when I can go shopping and not have a store worker follow me around thinking I am going to steal something. I am also looking forward to the day when I can go out to dinner and the person comes up to take reservations(seat guests) honors me first, because I am next in line and not have to check with the other (white) patrons to make sure I am not lying. When that does happen to me, I leave the restaurant and vow never to patronize it again, after letting the manager know why.



Yes, my friends, the road is long and the journey is trying at times, but I vow to keep my hand to the plow because I know a change gonna come.

peace,

Vee

Happy Birthday to my Double Digit Dude!!!

It has been a few weeks since my son celebrated his 10th birthday and I wanted to post the banner that he awoke to that morning.

 

The greeting was adhered to the wall using the blue painter's tape. He was overjoyed when he spied it. I have to admit that he did awake while I was in his bedroom putting it up on the wall but I was able to soothe him back to sleep. He did not recall a thing. After a delicious breakfast, he grabbed his new bat and posed for a picture beside his banner.

 

He posed for some other goofy ones, but I will save those for the scrapbook. In addition to his banner I also put together this card for him using some very old product that I purchased during the QVC days. I absolutely love those alphabet soup letters.

Zachary loved the entire day; we devoted it solely to him. He wanted a game for his Wii so off to Game Stop we went. In addition to his bat, he received a baseball glove, baseballs and a new basketball.

I did inform him that the single (digit) life was behind him and there was no looking back. He proclaimed that he will enjoy being 10. Gotta admire that kid's outlook on life.

Until then.

Backyard Scenic View

Happy July everyone!!! Although this photo does not qualify for the crafty zone, it is the colors and solemn peacefulness that caught my eye.

I had to clear off my deck to have it powerwashed and stained. This little rocker was destined for the trash. It was not in my future to strip, and stain or paint as I have done in the past. I took several shots trying to capture the essence of what I was seeing.

Quite often the camera's eye can't see what the natural eye does. The plants reminded me of three friends enjoying a lovely afternoon.

I did try several angles and enhancements. The way the sunlight dappled across that section of the yard was awesome. 

Sometimes to find beauty, you only have to go as far as your backyard.

Until then,
Vee

Zutter Bind it All Cover-All Giveaway WINNER ANNOUNCED!!!

WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!

The Zutter Bind it All will now take up residence in the home of ....
...........................Shirley Stevens.

Congrats Shirley.
Please PM me at bouchee2003 @ gmail.com
Thanks to everyone who entered.
vee
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Hello everyone. Can you believe that these have been floating about on the market and I never heard of them? Not sure how much promoting Zutter did for these, but I think it was not enough. Sometimes you don't want the spine to show and this is a very clever idea. LOL.

Here is an opportunity for you to win a set of these awesome Cover-Alls. The winner will receive two 8"x8" flat spine in brown and white, the 7.5" x 5" in white with the coordinating papers in black. Also, the 6" x 6" Cover-Alls in brown and white flat spine. Additionally, two covers in white, one 6x6 and the other 4.1" x 6.2" which is perfect for binding tags.

Please leave a comment on this blog post to be eligible to win. 

Contest closes Wednesday, June 26 at midnight EDT. Good luck to everyone and thanks again for watching my Vee-dios.

You can view the Cover-All Vee-dio on my YouTube channel.

Until then.

Cropper Hopper Stamp Storage and GiveAway--WINNER ANNOUNCED

GOSH, is it Saturday already? It can't be, I still have stuff to do.
Well on to the winners. Thanks to everyone who played along and left a comment.

The winners are:

Stamp Set 1: Mullamy

Stamp Set 2: Gadbois Sue

Stamp Set 3: Margaret

Please PM me at bouchee2003 @ gmail.com
vee
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Hello my crafty friends. It has been a busy couple of days for me. In between cleaning the house (uggghhh) and enjoying summer, I have been trying to organize my stamps using my new system. I have included a couple of pics of the adhesive I put on the back. I could have placed three or four LARGE blobs, but went with the smaller ones instead. Either small or large would work because it dries clear.

  Since I found my spare bottle I don't have to be so thrifty. I plan to put some of the smaller dollar stamps on the blank sides of the full sheets. Gotta maximize my real estate. This might get them out of the binders and out to be used. LOL. 

Here are a couple of pics of them adhered to the sheet and the entire piece is easily removed and returned. Neat, huh? This way I can keep them in the plastic and will not have to jeopardize the integrity of the stamps.



















While I tidy up I find that I have stamp sets to give away. One tip for getting a good impression with most stamps is to lightly sand the surface or use an eraser over the image and stamp a few images before going to your final project.

On to the giveaway. If you would like for one of the following three sets to take up residence in your home, please leave a message on this post and three winners will be randomly selected. Contest closes midnight, Thursday, June 27 EDT.

Giveaway #1

Giveaway #2

Giveaway #3

Thanks for stopping by and good luck.
Until then.