Happy Valentines Day

Wishing you 

A Very Happy

Valentines

 Day

First Day of School

Many, many years ago when I was a young mother, there came a time in each of my children lives when I sent them off to kindergarten. At the time it was a semi traumatic experience.

They were 5 years old, so of course they at the age where they making me crazy...  naturally I was looking forward to sending them off for half the day, I wouldn't even have to pay a sitter. When their first day of school arrived I admit panicked...my baby is going off in to the big bad world with out me! What if they get scared , what if they get dropped off at the wrong bus stop, what if...? 

One by one over the years I walked my little dears in to the big scarey school, took them to their class room and each one of them took off with a skip and a jump to look for new friends and play with the “educational” toys. Never looking back or giving me a wave good-bye. They were much braver than I was.

Arizona Flower Fairies

It is that time of the year here in Arizona, when we hit in the neighborhood of 115 degrees or higher during the day. Which creates a real hardship on our “Flower Fairies”. 

In Arizona we can pretty much garden year round...except July, August, and most of September, then it gets a bit rough for any thing to grow, except weeds. During the rest of the year our flower fairies reside in among the flower and vegetable gardens.

In the winter while the rest of the country is freezing cold and up to their knees in snow...Arizona has beautiful gardens and the flower fairies are doing their happy dance.

 

Are you wondering where the Arizona Flower Fairies go to in the Summer...
 they hide out at the mall or the movies where they can use someone else Air Conditioning to keep cool, just like everyone else!

Redford, Gatsby and 3D...

I hear the new "Great Gatsby" movie is suppose to be good. A friend of mine (with fantastic taste and a wonderful imagination...so she would know) says the movie is good and worth going to see. Oh by the way, she saw it in 3D. It's not that I'm doubting her, I just can't see any actor but Robert Redford playing Jay Gatsby.  Now there's a classic!

I love that era...the 1920's with the Art Deco design...and the stunning fashions.  The clothing was dazzling...Rayon dresses up to a ladies knees...how shocking!

  Hair was cut short and with a Marcel wave...what would their grandmothers say?

 The time of  "Gatsby"...the Roaring Twenty's, was pretty hot stuff...plenty of inspiration for a movie.

Yellow Daffodils

After an "egg-citing" Easter Egg Hunt, what child wouldn't want to go frolicking through the meadow with the Easter Bunny...

gathering  glittery yellow daffodils along the way.

Easter Lily

Along with bunnies, chicks, decorated eggs and candy, lilies are a big part of Easter celebrations. It's known for its huge trumpet-shaped flowers and it's powerful fragrance, which is famous for causing a stuffy nose.

This lily that the little girl is smelling is almost as tall as she is...she may need to break out the Kleenex and the Zyrtec!

Two Black Bats

 This image of a 1800s era girl in a Halloween bat costume and the flourish and swill background (embellished with a glitter pen) both came from Graphic Fairy. The edges of the tag were embellished with Tim Holtz Aged Mahogany Distressed ink. 

I finished the tag off with a couple of die cut black glitter paper bats...after all, if you are Bat Girl you can never have too many bats!

Tape, Tag and Basic Gray

I have been playing with decorative tape.  I guess you could call it a Washi tape knock off.  Real Washi tape is a high quality masking tape made of rice paper that come from Japan. The tape I used came from Michaels, and not made from rice paper.  There are dozens of creative ways to use this tape...check out Pinterest  if you are looking for ideas.

I tried out  a few different  ways to play with the tape from some idea pages, and then my creativity kicked in. I rummaged through some of my toys and came up with a manilla tags, a piece of an oldie but goodie  Basic Gray patterned paper, image from Graphic Fairy ( gotta love the Fairy) and a part of a lace applique ... I put them all together and created...

The tape becomes transparent when it is  applied to the tag .The ribbon for the tag is made out of  the black  decorative tape that has been folded  in half, looped through the hole at the top of the tag, then tied in a knot.

The decorative  tape is on the bottom of the tag, stacked  above each other, The image was printed on clear sticker paper. The tape and the image  are transparent and the cool Basic Gray patterned paper  design shows through.

Fragment Charms, Jewlery and Embellishments

I have been experimenting with Tim Holtz Idea-ology  Fragment Charm.  They are Tim's acrylic bits and pieces of different shapes and sizes (the ones that come pre-drill with holes)  when used along with Rangers Glossy Accents  you can create embellishments and jewelry.

The easiest technique is to apply the Glossy Accents to one side of the charm, lay the piece on a patterned paper, wait until the Glossy Accents drys, cut off the excess paper around the charm and there you go...you have a one of a kind charm. Add a jump ring and cording and you will have a pendent...if you use one of the smaller pieces you will have a charm for a bracelet. 

 I experimented with stamping the charms with Staz-on ink , then adding a patterned paper behind the stamp. I tried his technique for embossing the charm by sanding one side to create a frosted look. I then stamped an image with Versa Mark and applied clear embossing powder. Then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder which created an etched look on the charm. I now have a jar full of completed charms...there has to be more to these Fragment Charms that to just make jewelry!

While rooting in my patterned paper scraps I found a old Jenni Bowlin paper that looked like a collage of old post cards. One of the post cards had a great teal green background with variegated orange flowers...I created a charm with a portion of this image. While the charm was drying I covered a manila tag with the rest of the collage paper and added some of the text from the paper to the tag. When the charm was dry I added a bow. For an embellishment, I lined up the image on the charm to the image on the tag and adhered it to the tag with Ultimate Glue. The tag was finished off with Tim's Wild Honey Distress Ink.

I was pretty pleased with how the tag turned out...who knows I may spend the next week creating tags and adding Fragment Charm embellishments to them all!

World Traveler Mini Album

At one time I was a semi world traveler...London, Paris, Edinburgh, New York, San Francisco... now I just travel between home and work.  But I can create a World Traveler mini album complements of Teresa Collins and her great "World Traveler" patterned paper...

The front cover of the mini album was created with Teresa Collins patterned paper that looks like the inside of a passport..all those great custom stamps that check you into a country...my passport was never this full.

 The tabs give the mini album that "Journal" look...

Pictures can be added to the "film strip" areas...does anybody  use film anymore?

Plenty of room for journaling...

Love the brad embellishment...

Do you see the tag pocket?

There it is.

All part of the journey

A trip to remember. Maybe not a world travel, but a great weekend or a nice day trip.

The best part about this mini album is it's  in my Etsy store.


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Hit Twice

I've been tagged...not once but twice. First Sheri got me, then Tanya. The rules (there are always rules) are I'm to list five of my "addictions" and THEN... tag five other people. I'm not sure if these come under the heading of addictions, but...

#1 My car seat warmer. I know it's Arizona, but it's winter and darn cold in the mornings. The problem is by the time I get to work I'm so warm and comfortable I hate to get out of the car.

#2 Britcoms. I love to watch the British Comedies shown on PBS Saturday nights. Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, Last of the Summer Wine (I have to put the close caption so not to miss anything) and Waiting for God. They are so... "British" and have a bit more charm that their U.S. cousins.

#3 Cats. I don't know how anybody can function in life with out a least one cat. Nothing can make a no good, terrible, rotten day better than a cat curled up next to you purring.

#4 A fountain Pepsi or Coke in the morning. It's not the caffeine, it's taking that first sip through a straw, when the taste hits your tongue, and the fizz tickles your soft pallet. Ahhhhh!

#5 Taking trips. Not vacations were you sit on a beach and a cabana boy brings you a fruity drink with a little parasol floating in the glass. But a trip, where you walk and explore every out of the way place, nook and cranny. Where you learn about the history, the people, and maybe even make some life long friends. Then every time you think about the place and the friends it puts a smile on your face.

Now who to tag? How about...

Lisa, House of Hullabaloo
Sandy, Her Vintage Stage
Becky,whymsicalmusings
Val, flippinpest
and my niece Sarah