better hide the toys

There was a crop at my house yesterday. My granddaughter came over for the day...pulled out her scrapbook supplies and started in designing cards for her friends. I brought a project I was working on in to the dining room and joined her. Her favorite supply is pink glitter glue...everything has to have glitter on it and it has to be pink.

I had brought in my Distress Ink...Tattered Rose, to add to my project, and DGD decided she needed some on her cards also. I asked her if she wanted me to show her how to use it...."no, I know how".

Before we were finished, she had tried the paper cutter too, using scissors just takes too long.

Ta Da!

I finally got a chance to sit down and play with all the ephemera that Becky sent me last week.

So many choices I ended up making two ATC cards

and there is plenty ephemera left for the next time I get a chance to play. Thank you so much Becky!

A Touch of Class

I taught my Chunky ATC class at Mystic Paper last night. Contrary to the pictures, they were quit an energetic group ...

paper was flying, scissors were snipping...

and sometimes more than the ink was distressing. It can be a teaching challenge to try and harness so much creative imagination.

Each ones individual design perspective added color to the event.

...and the winner is...

Last week the very creative Becky posted a give away on her blog. She had wonderful ephemera sheets and bits & pieces. Becky was also giving away a fantastic ATC and bookmark she designed. The only rule for the give away is you had to leave a comment on that post. The name of the winner would be picked by a "random name selector". I drop by Becky's blog often to see what spectacular creations she has come up with. I left a short comment letting her know how much I enjoyed her blog. To my surprise the name selector chose my name to win the give away. True to her word, I came home from work to find a package from Becky full of all kinds of charming "toys"...

The ATC and bookmark Becky made are very impressive.

Lots of texture, glitter, stars, butterflies, rhinestones, flowers and vivid colors.

I am a big ephemera fan...the sheets and the bits & pieces Becky sent are too fun.

Butterflies, labels, and Victorian clip art.

Thank you Becky so much for a lovely give away...you made my day. As soon as I get a chance to play with all these new "toys", I will post the finished design.

the other side of the garden

As a floral designer I work with sunflowers often. They are a nice enough flower, but I wouldn't say they were one of my favorites.

Now having said that, this sunflower is growing in our garden. Not the west side where the "Hope Garden" is located, but way over on the east side. What is special about this particular sunflower is we didn't plant it. A little sprout showed up in a pot a few months ago and because I didn't recognize it as a weed sprout, it didn't get pulled out. I'm going to take a guess that the seed was blown over from the bird feeder or a bird it self dropped it. Which every way it happened, we are now enjoying the flower...just thought I would share.

You noticed when I don't have something exciting to blog about, we go back to the garden...

A Day Trip to Paris

I turned my Design Team project for the month of
April in to Mystic Paper today.

You remember all those luscious (Creative Imaginations... Samantha Walker) patterned paper and epoxy stickers I got in my kit... along with a few added elements I designed a Paris travel book. I used the photos and journaled a day trip I had taken with my aunt and mom to Paris.

I broke out all the toys, distress ink and ribbon...

I made fun flowers using Prima Flowers, glimmer mist and Stickles...


I then made some using pink lace, beads and rhinestones.

Next time you are in Mystic take a look at the book,and if you have the time read the journaling...

it was very much one of those trips you never forget!

Sheri has her project, a 7 Gypsies paper bag book posted on her blog. You can see it there. Yasu has posted the fun project she made on her blog too. Lindsey's computer is down for a bit. Keep checking in to see her Design Team Project. In the mean time you can see her designs "in real life" at Mystic Paper...along with the rest of the Design Teams creations.

Easter Card

Happy Easter

Easter ATC Swap

I received my ATC's from Sandy's Easter swap. We were to make six cards and get back six. I made this one for the swap...

This one was made by Hanna, who lives in Finland, cute little pink bunny...

The yellow chick with blue flowers came from Debbi...

Susan designed a card with a Victorian lady in a wonderful Easter Bonnet...
The cute bunny came from Sherry...

Judy, Mystic Paper regular created this sweet card...

Our swap hostess Sandy designed two great cards...

To all the terrific artist thank you so much for sharing your talent!

Chunky What?

If you haven't visited Mystic Paper's new and improved Web site click on over. There are wonderful things going on over there. If you check out their list of classes you will find my name. I will be teaching a class on Chunky ATCs.

You say you have heard of chunky peanut butter and Chunky Monkey ice cream, but not Chunky ATCs. Come join me on April 24 at 3pm and we will get glue and glitter on our fingers making Chunky ATCs. Give Mystic a call...they'll sign you up.

Easter in a Box

The mail man left something besides bills yesterday. It was a package with my name on it...inside was Easter in a Box. Included was a bag of black Jelly Beans...my favorite. A Victorian Cat book,

some "chick" confetti in a nest of vintage Easter grass

and a wonderful Easter card with a

"Folded Bunny" all too cute. This surprise box was from ...the Easter Bunny.

Thank you Easter Bunny so very much!

All things Paris

Sorry for that long "station break" there. The internet provider has been having some outage issues.

I was able to receive an e-mail from Sheri our
Mystic Paper Design Team captain...the April kits were made up and waiting for us. Sheri's instructions "...it should be pretty evident by what is in the bag what the assignment is." A very cryptic message indeed.

Sheri had picked out four luscious sheets of
"Creative Imaginations" patterned paper that just screams ...

Two sheets of card stock...one in a dark chocolate brown and the other in french vanilla. Epoxy stickers to complement all that wonderful paper

and pink satin ribbon...or as they say in France "rubon".

If you hang out at Mystic you know how much everybody loves all things Paris. Now what can I come up with that will carry on the Mystic/Paris tradition?

Did I ever tell you about my trip to Paris...?