Pensando en ti

Sorry- I do have one more post, then I think I'm pretty much caught up. Another friend, at my other job, lost her father this winter and as a daughter who still MISSES her daddy after almost 12 years, I really felt this card for her. I've noticed she still has it hanging in her workspace too, it makes me sympathetic again every time I see it (and a little bit proud). In case you can't tell, I was already working on the butterflies for Kayla, but this is definitely a different feeling! Retired SU! stamp, plus new one for words, painted with Twinkling H2O's and antiqued with walnut ink and chalk ink.

Baby gifts

OK last post for today (?) Catching up a little. One of my friends at work had a baby this spring and I could not limit my ideas for gifts to just one. They all know I'm the "crafty" one and make everyone's cards for occasions. So no one was very surprised I wanted to MAKE presents! She told me they were doing the baby girl's room in pink and purple with a butterfly theme and her name would be Kayla. I also managed to make a photocopy of a couple of the ultrasound pictures she had one day. I ended up with 3 gifts to give her. I hope you like them. The letter can be put on a bookshelf or hung on the wall. The white part at the top of the name frame is for her vital stats. And the trunk is for Mom to keep all those little things us moms want to keep!-Congrats cards, first booties, lock of hair, etc,etc. (Please tell me-I'm curious-what you guys kept from your kid's babyhood).

OOPS! I'll have to edit this post later-I just realized I never uploaded a pic of the trunk completely finished! For now, imagine that the trunk looks like the practice-board!

PIC-OF-THE-WEEK!

I'm going to try to make a posting EVERY WEEK! Any one who catches me NOT posting weekly can feel free to call me out on it -I need to stop being so lazy! One of my goals this spring/summer is to get started (and hopefully continue throughout the year) posting a "PIC-OF-THE-WEEK". It will make me remember to take my camera and take pictures of daily inspirations and life in general. I have a good one from last weekend to post today. We got donuts on Sunday and Pokey decided to reach right in and lick one before anyone else picked one. They are all so spoiled! Needless to say we had to give it to them and I had my camera handy, sooo...

Don't worry, she did not get to eat the whole thing! I love the perspective in this pic-the donut looks enormous and Pokey looks so focused! Next post: gifts for new baby!

RE-introducing me

I recntly asked to be added to an ATC group and the following is my "brief" introduction of myself. Writing this inspired me to re-introduce myself here, too! :
I am actaually newer to ATC's. I just heard of them last summer/fall. I started as a scrapbooker several years ago (about 10 or 11?) then discovered stamping and cardmaking about 7 or 8 years ago. I love the artsier cards and discovered about a year ago that there does seem to be a whole world of art that I have been away from for a long time!
I took several art classes in college, but got away from that side of myself for a career, marriage and child. Marriage is long-gone, child is almost-grown and career is stable. I've realized lately that I want to get back to doing some of the things I used to that were just for me. I actually enjoy being alone. (I hope that doesn't sound creepy! I love being with family and friends too!)
I love blogs! I started my own, but have had trouble keeping it up! I kind-of "went away" this winter and have not been very active in my crafts or blogging this winter. I recently moved and reorganized my "studio" (LONG STORY!) and have been getting back into photos and creating just in the past few weeks.
I love to learn new techniques and see people's ideas. It inspires me! My biggest problem with it all is that I tend to get caught up in ideas and looking and not spending enough time DOING. I bought a laptop this winter, in part, to be able to take my inspiration into the studio (before, these things were 2 floors away from each other) and that has really helped re-fuel my creative juices! Look for some new postings soon on my blog!
I also tend to be very wordy (in case you couldn't tell), so I'll shut up now!
Sara Larson

I need to learn a little more about posting too. I don't know how to set up a picture right next to the paragraph about it. I just wantedto post an updated pic of the kittens and the bits of the things I have started and I wanted to explain a little about the cards I posted below.

The pinwheel one was a new tech I tried out for a swap. I like the tag pinwheels better. I also used heat embossing and the shaving cream marbled paper. The B-C-N-U card was for a friend and her family that moved to Texas in July. The "celebrate" card was a birthday card for a co-worker. Ok now back to work!

HI! Just a quickie to let the world know I am still here! I have mostly been lazy as far as writing in my blog. One of the things taking up my time has been trying to keep up after our growing menagerie of animals! Our Kitten had kittens! Back in last Sept Veornica found a tiny kitten abandoned in the bushes. We added her to our family and when I asked the vet about getting her fixed He said she had to be at least 6 months old. Sooo, fast-forward, she's about 7, maybe going on 8 months and I'm ready to call the vet and we look at her and say "Gee, she's getting kinda fat, isn't she? You don't think...". Yup, sure enough, she was already in the "family way". (I have always tried to keep our cats in, but I SWEAR they were walking through walls, so I gave up-I have them fixed-I just didn't get this one fast enough!) So at the end of July she had 4 kittens. (pictures to follow). Long story short, we now have 2 VERY active kittens that seem to be staying with us. 2 were given to friends and are doing very well also.

I also have been doing some creative things. My big problem is having my craft room in the basement. I don't like to go down there that much. We had it finished and it's not unpleasant. It's just not where I want to be! All the big windows are upstairs, my daughter and people are upstairs. I like to multi-task and the TV w/the DVR is UPstairs and so is my computer. I get inspired by all the great art I see from everyone else on their blogs and in my e-mail groups, but my supplies are not where I am. Then, when I make a point of going down to "the cave" to create, I'm lost for inspiration! I lose it somewhere on the stairs! Anyway, I'll post what I've got now.

I AM working hard right now because I have signed up to be in a craft show and I'm trying to build up an inventory. I think I approach making a lot of things differntly than I see other people doing it though. I see people who create a card or three every day and when I am trying to create more than a few of something I approach it almost "assembly line" fashion. I think, in part, it's because I really love to color and to stamp an image, color it, stamp another one, color it, etc,etc is tedious, plus I'm spending too much time in that place where I don't want to be. What I did was stamp a whole bunch of images to color and bring them upstairs, along with some of my favorite coloring supplies I'm posting some pics of what I've got so far and I'll post the copmlted tings when they are completed! And I do mean "things", not just cards, I'm trying to do lots of gift bags, boxes, gift items and maybe even framing a couple of my photos.

TOO MUCH TIME!

So much time has passed SO quickly! I don't know how I let it slip by! I have so many "posts" to catch up on! I'll stick to the subject first and post a couple of ATC's that I made recently. I had planned to go to a local ATC swap a few weeks ago, but I was worried because I just started doing them and only had 2 made that I could swap. So I set down to make at least a couple more and was content with what I had. So, I'm all ready and excited to go... then I got out of work very late that day :=( I didn't make it. I have been invited again - I guess it's going to be a sort-of monthly thing and I hope it will be. I love looking at other people's art. Anyway, here are the new one's I did. One is just a variation of the first one I did.