My Tim Holtz Christmas Goodies

I got a huge haul of Tim Holtz Idea-ology goodies for Christmas and combined some of them with miscellaneous watch parts to make the heart for this assemblage. I originally was going to use this as a card front, but I liked it so much that I decided to frame it instead :)

I found the perfect frame at our local Goodwill!

Watercolor for Cardmakers

Watercolor for Cardmakers is the first online class that I have ever signed up for.  The cost was reasonable and watercoloring is not a strength of mine, so I decided to give it a shot.

Although actual instruction doesn't begin until May 5, there are pre-class videos to view that go over supplies and suggest a few exercises. 

We were asked to make swatch cards using any watercolor media that we had. I already own two sets of traditional watercolors, watercolor pencils and crayons, plus Tim Holtz Distress inks and markers.

traditional watercolors and watercolor crayons

blurry photo of my watercolor pencils

Distress inks and markers

We were also asked to make a plaid design with very diluted watercolor that we could post to the pre-class members' gallery. 

I used blue, yellow, and green for my plaid.

I'm looking forward to the new activities!

October Cards

(This was posted in October 2013. Today I noticed a typo, went back and fixed it, then when I hit 'update' it was moved from the original posting date to this one 6 months later. OOPS! I don't know how to fix it now:)

My husband and grandson share the same birthday in October. We were lucky enough this year to celebrate together in Boston. My husband is a cowboy at heart, and last summer I bought him a cowboy history book and put it away for his birthday. I have accumulated some cute cowboy paper and rubber stamps and decided to use those to create this year's card.

These photos are of us in our younger days when Glenn was directing a play set in the old west. Who knew that they would come in handy thirty years later!

Our grandson is really into vehicles of all sorts, so I made him this card for his second birthday. The bed of the truck moves up and down.

Here's a Halloween card that I made for my good friend who loves the holiday. The images were cut using the Chic and Scary Cricut cartridge.

  

Easter Goodies!

I admit that I have a history of being negligent when it comes to sending greeting cards. Now that I have so much invested in craft supplies, I am a tad better at getting them out.

I love to make holiday cards (as evidenced by previous posts) and Easter cards are a favorite to make. Here are a few that I sent out this year.

This card was inspired by Jacqueline DeGroot using the large Hero Arts tulip stamp.

I just purchased a Stampin' Up embossing folder that made this CS frame 

                              look like fabric. It is a neat texture.

Postcard made for our grandson

A bright, cheerful card for my mom

Inspiration from Pinterest led me to stamp tissue paper and decoupage torn bits onto some paper mache eggs. After adding embellishments to the eggs, I placed them on moss in a glass container.

There appears to be a pink and white striped piece in the bowl,
but it's actually a reflection of my shirt when I snapped the picture :)

Here is yet another Pinterest inspiration - a candlestick glued to the 

bottom of a glass hurricane filled with moss and speckled eggs.

Easter wishes!

Baby Girl

We were delighted to hear of the birth of a healthy baby girl on March 31! Both sets of grandparents are friends of ours and first time grandparents. Their children (the baby's parents) were former sixth grade students of mine and family friends. What a joyous occasion!!! Since her parents didn't reveal the sex of the baby prior to her birth, I had to scramble to make cards for all parties :)

I happened to have these puffy stick-on letters which inspired the color scheme.

When our grandson was born we received several congratulatory cards, and I thought they were pretty special.  It was fun making cards for each set of Emma's grandparents!

The card wasn't cockeyed in real life, only in my photography.

Both grandparent cards were inspired by Pinterest.

The very next day, April 1, my high school BFF welcomed her fifth grandchild. He was named Nolan - same as our grandson - and we are hoping to introduce them one day! I need to get busy making another card:)

April Tag 2014

I really like the Tim Holtz April 2014 tag.  I had all the materials on hand except for the Trellis die. I went to Michaels today to see if they possibly had it but they never have any of the recent releases (I was really hoping to find the round blending tool but was once again disappointed).  I created the trellis look by making a repeating pattern from one of the Cricut Mini basic shapes. It's not an exact match but has a similar feeling. I've had a lot of use from my pinecone die which I used to make my roses and foliage. Previously I mentioned that I got a ton of Tim Holtz products for Christmas so I already had the token, pin, distress paint (I used broken china), and tissue tapes. Usually I try to do my own take on the tag, but this month I tried to mimic Tim's.

Note the glare from the mirror insert!