Perpetual Playtime

This has been a pretty bad week for me. Well, actually, just the last three days, but that IS the majority of the week so far. It all started day before yesterday when I woke my PC up and there was a bubble in the task bar saying that McAfee had run an update & I needed to restart my PC. No problem - click the restart and as it boots back up I get the BSoD (blue screen of death) . Tried everything I could to recover without a reload of the O.S, but no luck. As much as I hated reloading the OS I was at least accepting of that being the final solution since I felt my pictures and documents were all safe on Carbonite. (And this is no promotion for any products or services, this is just how I have chosen to backup my files - and about 10 years of digital images) Anyway, finally get the OS reloaded and now I have to change all the generic stuff and start trying to recall what programs I had that I want to reinstall. Thinking that it might be wiser to restore my Carbonite fist, in case...

This is my second card made specifically for challenges. I enjoyed making this card because there was a specific type of card required for one challenge (Squigglefly Challenge #63) , and a specific color scheme was required for a second challenge (SAV Challenge #31) . Well, actually, they are both color specific, but the Squigglefly color requirement is fall colors and the Stampavie color requirement fits. Additionally the color scheme challenge also required a Stampavie stamp be used. It took me a minute to figure out how to get my elements to come together, but I did it. I decided to make a miniature card for my granddaughter with the stamped (My Sweet Lili by Sarah Kay) image to use as one of the inserts for the pocket. I made her a bookmark for my second pocket insert. Card with inserts Here are the inserts - a miniature card with a poem about granddaughters inside and a bookmark with "KNOW" & "LOVE" tags. A non-challenge, non-card specific note...

My little sister made me a handy little booklet to keep my Copic color combinations in and to say Thank You I made her a card (I mean, aren't we always looking for a chance to make a new card?). I was so excited to have finished my card that I put it in the mail to her before I took a picture and had to ask her to snap it and e-mail me some shots! Okay, maybe it wasn't so much my excitement as it was my rememberer not being as good as it  once was, but that's beside the point!  On this card I knew Lisa liked red so I had to make red the predominant color. And, since I like pinks & purples, I thought it was pretty neat to find a paper with a pink & red pattern. By far, the hardest part of making this card was pleating the ribbon to frame the stamped image. That ribbon is a 1/4" gossamer like ribbon with a think satin border on each side. And along with my rememberer getting older, my fingers have too. But it was a labor of love so I plugged away and finally g...

Okay, so this is the first card I made specifically for a challenge. YNS Challenge #23~Bold, Bright, Summery Colors! I did post my Baby Card on a challenge, but I just got lucky to have made a card that fit the challenge design that very week. But this one I saw a challenge that I knew I could put together since the focus was Bold Bright Summery Colors. I kicked around several color combinations but decided I liked the basic primary color combination a lot. Some might think these colors look like a Primary School theme color arrangement, but to me they say summer. Especially with the bright yellow! Just a happy color. :) And, to my advantage since I am still new to the creating of the cards, this challenges is won by random number based on what order submissions are posted. So I have a chance even though there are people who make cards that are simply amazing! If it were awarded based on talent/skill, I would pass on the opportunity. Anyway, here is my little summer girl. She is LIt...

Yesterday I spent part of my day working on a couple of cards and spent the rest of the day working organizing my supplies in my craft room. First I want to post a card a made to go with the baby gift for my step-granddaughter, Jennifer. This is my first attempt at an easel design and I am pretty pleased with it. It doesn't exactly match the wrapping paper for the gift, which is mostly ecru with little rabbits at play, but I wanted it to be specifically blue for boy so that it made better sense if she chooses to set it out to look at and show others. Angled view to show the easel This card is made with a digi-stamp from Squigglefly.com . And the diaper pins were just a free clip-art image from some random place on the web. I cut the pins out & raised them with foam tape to give more support to the image front. Front view You can't really tell in these images, but if you click on the front image it should open to a larger view and you can see the Cutt...

I get to share another post with crafty work I did not do! This time it is some wonderful craftiness from my little sister, Lisa. During a recent telephone conversation I mentioned needing to come up with a small notebook I could store my favorite Copic color combinations in for reference. I said that if I had a Bind It All I would just make one, but since I don't have a BIA I guess I will just see what I could find at the local target. Well, being the sweet sister she is, she said she had a BIA and would make a booklet for me. Other than suggesting the pages be something in the neighborhood of 1/4 sheet size to keep the cutting & measuring simple I told her I would leave color & design up to her. Well, my package arrived today and I was sooo happy with my booklet! She did a wonderful job and I just love it! I have already pasted some of my color samples in it. When I have a stamp that doesn't stamp up well I save it to do test color & techniques. When I like the co...

This card was not made by me. It was made by my 15 year old granddaughter. She spent several days with me this past week and I gave her a mini-course on using the blending technique of the Copic markers. She took to it like a champ! She used her first stamped piece to make a birthday card for her best friend, Shelby. Here is her first card, and I'm so proud of her! And, since both she & her friend Shelby love The Beatles music, she added a line from a classic Beathes song to the inside. Of course having her here working on crafts with me reminded me of how badly I want to get the sewing room revamped to my craft room as soon as possible. And, yes,I realize I blogged about this task a while back, but I have had one or another grandchild here for most days of the last few weeks. And when I get involved in the clean-up I don't want or need to have to stop several times to accommodate them, so I just let it slide. But school starts back the middle of next week so my we...