fairies love shimmer

hi all!
yay for fridays!  for us it means daddy comes home and pezza doesn't have to deal with cranky bedtime momma - evenings are NOT my specialty...luckily pezza has been easy on me for the most part and just reads while i pass out next to her :P

we had really warm weather yesterday - t shirt and no jacket weather!  got me itchin' to work in the yard.  we began our spring garden clean up in one of the front beds but did not get very far.  our neighbor across the street came out and we went for a walk with her and her kids instead.  (had to discuss any updates on why the cops have been to her neighbor's house 3 times in 4 days looking for the husband...YIKES!)  and catch up on other things.  BUT we are back in spring gardening mode today with a trip out to chantilly for the huge home and garden expo.  that will surely get us inspired!

i do have a quick project for ya:

 i am really into blue/green/turquoise lately...

of course the only way to get all that luscious shimmer is with Luminarte Primary Elements Artist Pigments - i must say i am having an awful lot of fun with them!

my image is colored using watercolor pencils - need to get back to those!  love the inktense SO much!
we are off to get ourselves cleaned up and presentable so we can journey to the show.  i hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

mix it up challenge

hi all!

hubby headed back out of town this morning so i am on my own with she-who-never-stops-moving.  seems at this point that he will be out of town 3 days a week for awhile BLECH!!!  at least he doesn't have to do it for the full 5 days a week!

so i have been thinking about pinterest (i say that like this is something new!)  anyway, one of the things i am always finding on there is stuff i want hubby to make/build for me.  so i made a honey make this board.  now i can just refer him to it!  but then it occurred to me - pinterest can be a really fabulous wish list to consult when you need to buy someone a gift!  just check out their pinterest boards and you will see everything they have ever dreamed of!  gift giving made easy!

i kicked off the Mix It Up groupon Color Me Creative - a mixed media/altered art challenge group - on monday with a fun live chat, the next challenge and a scavenger hunt for a chance to win some goodies.  our current challenge is to use a page from a book - in any way, on any type of project:

i scored big time at a cool antique mall right here in my little town called It's Bizarre and found several old books - nice and aged to perfection!  so i tore one out and got to work!

First I mixed up a little Apple Blossom Primary Elements Artist Pigment mica powder with some liquid medium and stamped the page with a claudine hellmuth foam stamp.  then i accented them a bit with some quick circles using a black colored pencil.

Next i further accented them with some drops of buttermilk liquid pearls.  now i have a cool custom patterned paper!

I decided to use it on a card this time - i will be doing more with these in my art journal - but i wanted to show folks how easily mixed media can be incorporated into cardmaking.  they really overlap quite a bit - think tim holtz - pure mixed media.  but i like mine more on the cutesy side so i paired my book page with some cute papers and an adorable Make It Crafty image!

i painted her with Luminarte's Twinkling H2Os and then used regular colored pencils to add depth and shading - the shimmer will still shine through the pencil!

isn't she gorgeous!  i will have a video up on this image soon!

meanwhile on the kitty front - one of our big cats is a ferocious hunting machine.  it is her life's mission to rid our yard and the yards around us of every living thing.  she can cry at the door, go out, head straight to the next yard, grab a mouse and come back.  since bubba came along she can't go in and out freely through the cat door so she has had to resort to hunting indoors:

this is the upstairs hallway after 3 days.  i pick them back up and spread them around the house and she repeats...

and then there is my sweet sweet bubba kitten.  one of his fave hiding places was always under pezza's kitchen step stool.  however he used to be MUCH MUCH smaller so now we have this:

i freakin love that kitten!

mix it up kick off party!

ok.

last post today.

i swear.

hahhahahahh!

who knows if any of you know this or not (back to the disappearing subscribers fiasco) but i have been going back to my roots and delving even deeper into some mixed media fun.  Suzanne asked me to start a mixed media challenge group over on her classroom site - Color Me Creative.  tonight is the kick off party for Mix It Up!  we will also be kicking off a new challenge.  so head over from 7:30-8:15 pm eastern time - there will be an opportunity to win some goodies too!  we hope to see you!

this is a test.....

hi all!

it appears that many of my subscribers were not getting my post emails.  some for perhaps a very long time :O

after spending some time on the phone with customer support they figured out the problem and made some changes to my account SO hopefully it all goes well!  if you haven't heard from me in awhile scroll down and see what i have been up to! i f you are receiving this post more than once let me know that too!

Aaaaaaahh...the weekend

hi all!

i say all with disdain since i just realized feedblitz deleted ALL of my subscribers.  that explains alot...GRRRRRRR.  so if you managed to get here ANYWAY and would like to get back on the list to get my blog in your email sign back up at the right.  it's kinda amusing since for awhile i had the opposite problem and folks were getting it TWICE.

i had QUITE the fun weekend with TWO parties and a hubby willing to go it alone with little miss screechy on both saturday and sunday.  one of my goals for 2012 is to spend more time cultivating my friendships.  so that is what i did this weekend.  saturday i went to the Moms Night Out event with the moms club i have been in since pezza was a baby.  first i have to say that even tho i have not been terribly participatory that club has been one of the best things i have ever done.  when i raised my boys i always felt very alone and very much the outsider because i was not friends with any of the area moms, especially with all of the moving around we did.  but the town we live in now is very small, close knit and just fabulous.  so when it was time to sign up for preschool i realized i knew lots of the other parents already - makes a giant difference!  well when i ran into two of my faves, somphane and kacey, they convinced me to come out to the Rouge Spa with them and some other moms saturday night. we all brought some goodies to eat (i brought fruit with a dip made of a jar of marshmallow cream and a block of cream cheese - i highly recommend it).  then throughout the evening we all had very spa treatments done - mine was a fantastic massage - loved it!  also loved sitting and chatting with several of my fave friends and some new friends too.

then on sunday i did something totally new and totally fun that i am pretty sure will be going on ALL over the place this year - my first pinterest party!  AWESOME people!  EVERYONE should throw one of these in their area! 

it was put together by another of my fave people, Cori.  and let me tell you cori really knows how to throw a fun get together - she is a master!  this is what was going on in the bathroom :)

we all brought a food/drink item...

and a crafty item for show and tell that we got from pinterest - this included pinterest fails because let's face it - those are funny!

Cori had a table set up to put these out on

and then while we ate and drank (there were quite a few different alcoholic drinks that looked quite fancy but i didn't get to sample those because i don't drink)

here's my friend melissa showing one off - so nice to see her again!

we did show and tell:

Monica - paint chips, small punch and a ribbon - how cute and easy is that?!?!?!?  these are tinkerbells...

Sock bun - seriously way cool.  pezza and i attempted it last night but did not get it right so we will be trying again today.  i cannot for the life of me remember their names but isn't the daughter gorgeous?!?!  of course you could see better if the pics weren't blurry but i was apparently off my game yesterday.

i couldn't get a good pic from my angle but she also showed us a cute idea with maps and a simple floating frame from target.  she cut out the states where each family member was born after printing them out at home and mounted them between the panes of glass.  easy and cool idea!

this is jen (whom i met at the party and have to say i LOVE her - way too funny!  had me laughing hysterically more than once).  she showed us a sensational idea for organizing your kids' school stuff through the years.  and it is so simple really.  plastic file bin from staples and some hanging file folders (i would use the style that has the flat bottom so you could stuff it!)  On the front you put their school picture for that year and a label with pertinent info.  each kid gets a box.  in addition she made up a questionnaire and will have the kids fill it out every year with some of their fave things and such and then sign it.  gonna start one right now and also go dig up whatever i have in the boys folders and do them too.  She also showed us a key, painted with white glue, dipped in glitter and then covered with clear nail polish but she does not know how long it will last.

next up - origami bookmarks by shelley.  these are valentine day ones from valentine scrap paper.  i will be looking for more themes!  i've got lots of scrapbook paper to use up!

michelle had a great paper gift box - this it what it looks like opened up.  when you close it and tie it with a ribbon and put it lid on it is a cute little tall skinny box.  fun!

SO. MUCH. FUN.  and the best part - i will be hosting my own pinterest party at the Outlawz Rodeo retreat in baltimore in may!  to get all of the details check out the main page!  the more the merrier!

this week is supposed to be really gorgeous - i have given up on my winter dreams of snow and am instead getting quite excited about working in my gardens getting ready for spring.  hubby got me a dream composter which i have been wanting for ages and me n pezza can't wait to start filling it up!  i also saw some fruit trees out for sale at southern states...ooohhhh fruit trees......fun......also have plans to meet up with several friends this week for catching up and playdates.  and so begins my attempt to bring a little more balance to my life and not work ALL the time - tho i do have a lot to work on this week!  fun fun stuff coming soon!

a birthday card today

hi all!

so you would think having a girl i would not have to keep repeating "don't stand on the furniture - you can NOT fly!"  yep.  that is her latest mission.  she is convinced she can learn to fly.  we are going to head to chik fil a so she can play while i get some work done - got a few exciting things in the works but i have a lot of work to do to get there!

i have a birthday card to share today:

i got a bunch of lili of the valley stamps - oh how i ADORE those!  i wish i could one every one of them!  This is Time for a Cuppa and i thought it went perfectly with this cute cupcake paper!  and check out those flowers - annyone reccognize them?  no?  that's cuz they are old as the hills primas - i love being able to use new stuff just like the next guy but i have a TON of the old primas and you will just have to suffer through my occasional not-on-trend products :P  honestly it is just so hard to keep up with everything and expensive too!

i colored her with colored pencils and instead of stamping her with black i decided to use a very pale brown - i like it.  i also love the vivid-ness of the colors.  folks often think you can't achieve that with colored pencils but you most certainly can!

i will be teaching folks how in may in baltimore - registration is open so sign up!  come for the class or come for the whole weekend!  either way it will be lots of fun!

clay tiles!

hi all!

hubby headed back out of town this morning so i am on my own again - y'all say a little prayer alrighty?!?!?  so we were watching the velocity channel this morning - no not with daddy - that is what my car freak daughter requested - anyway, one thing i hate about tv these days is that you might be watching a show that is totally kid appropriate and suddenly a male sex enhancement commercial comes on ACK!  so lately pezza has been going through this thing where she is refusing to go to the bathroom when she needs to pee.  of course it is gonna happen eventually and then we are changing clothes.  i am pulling my hair out.  so what commercial comes on?  a male prostate drug commercial and what does the guy say?  "i was having a problem going to the bathroom to often and it was disrupting my life"  or some such stuff.  "then i found this whatever pill and not i don't have to go nearly as much..."  and i can't get to the tv fast enough and i am thinking no no no don't tell her that!  she's gonna want to take it and think it will make her not have to pee!  thankfully she was not paying attention.  apparently momma needs to keep a closer eye out when we are watching some riveting classic car auctions (god help me).

i am pleased to say that my house is all cleaned up now though - yay me!  oh if only i could keep it that way!  i happened to catch the kid across the street leaving for the elementary bus this morning so i ran to the clock to check the time - 7:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!  holy cow another year and half and i can scoot her out the door at 7:30 and not get her back home til 2:45??!?!  that is 7 hours people!!!!!!!!!!!  boy will i ever be able to get stuff done - i will be able to work AND keep up with my house!  heck i might even bake cookies or something :P

so what else have i been up to?  fun fun fun with polymer clay - this is why i get up at 3:30 am!

i spent some time with the amazing book by laurie mika called mixed media mosaics and it is amazing!!!!

pezza helped me too - aren't they freakin amazing!  i have made all of these after going through the first few pages of the book!!!!!  and there is still so much more!

i used all sorts of things - polymer clay in black and silver, luminarte polished pigments, perfect pearls, stamps, texture sheets, beads and gold leafing.  gold leafing is SO cool!  first time i ever used it and i ADORE it!  i will be making lots more of these and then creating some larger projects using them!  laurie is also very nice and has answered my emails readily.  she is even going to be teaching near me later this year so i am really hoping i get to take her workshop - it will combine beads and clay - does it get any better than that??? i think not!

valentine quickie...

hi all!

HAHHAHHAHHAH!  ok who freaked out at the title???

goodness i have so many different things i am working on and my poor neglected house looks HIDEOUS!  so i guess i really need to take a break and get that taken care of!  i always wish i could be one of those people who is organized and neat and whose house is always clean and perfect but it just does not seem to happen over here:P i really phoned it in in terms of valentine's day too - sorry hubby!  but he did too so we're ok!

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have you checked out the baltimore class page yet????  are you coming to hang out in baltimore with us?  i sure hope so!
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i DID make myself get a quick little project together for pezza's classmates.  no party today for parents so i am off the hook there - i have all this house to clean remember.....

we started with little red bags and then she picked out the papers and the image for the front - it is cut from the tie the knot cricut cartridge.  also pulled out the MS border punch i so rarely get to use :P  i need to get more creative with that thing.  perhaps i should make more stuff for hubby *wink*  {he reads my blog hee hee!}

inside is a container of playdoh and candy :)

i hope you all have a happy day too!

class time y'all! who's in?

hi all!

so so so many fun things in the works i am bursting!  but i can only tackle one at a time and today i wanted to tell you about something fun happening in may in baltimore MD - The Outlawz Rodeo retreat!  so what the heck is that????  The Outlawz is a fantastic crafty group that has lots of challenges every week, a super talented bunch of folks on the design teams and fabby prizes.  i had the honor of spending some time on their prisma pencil design team and the ladies are just so friendly! well they are putting together a great opportunity for all of us to get together and meet!  open to ALL - not just folks on the outlawz site but if you have not been over there i urge you to check it out!

so what's this rodeo all about - well NOT horses and bull riding!  it is not a crop or a scrapping retreat but more of an opportunity to meet up with people you may know only online.  i have to tell you this sort of chance is AWESOME.  the party starts on friday may 18th.  i will be hosting a pinterest party friday night at the hotel (bwi marriott) and then i have TWO classes on saturday!

a mixed media class focusing on Luminarte shimmering amazing goodness

we will make a piece you can use as a background piece on your cards...

 

And boy do these products pack some shimmer

look at the pink shimmer on the brown!

we will make a second piece you can use as the focal point for a card

cuteness!  and SHIMMER!

and finally we will make a third piece suitable for hanging:

i am also teaching a second class - prisma colored pencils

you can register for class on my class page and get additional details

and the VERY BEST PART OF CLASS.....MY best most awesome crafty online friend Catherine is coming from canada to be my helper - we can be quite the show when we get together.  it's like we are twins - she will be staying here at my house first.  kevin is scared.    when we met for the first time at cha several years ago suzanne didn't even want to be seen with us - FLASHBACK

this what we look like after hanging out a few days together!

get ready baltimore!