It's all in the colors

When I was little I was fascinated, as most children are, with the colors of Christmas. My first memory is of the old fashioned colored lamp casting it's rainbow upon the aluminum Christmas tree. Later, it was the big bulb lights and the bubble lights. As decorating yards for the season became the rage, I loved riding around in the old station wagon with the backward facing back seat to see all the light displays.

Carnivals are a huge attraction for me. My earliest recollections are from the mid 1960's and Longmont CO. Mom or Dad would take me at night when everything was lit up. Walking along the midway, I could feel the energy of every colored light from the rides and booths.
4th of July would find me sitting on a blanket at the park in Longmont oohing and ahhing at the firework display

As a teen, I lived in rural Platteville Co. Our house sat on a hill - the highest point in the county We could see for miles from the outer reaches of Denver where DIA now sits, across to Boulder and all along the front range and back to the northeast and the city lights of Greeley. I would sit on the picnic table in our yard just watching all the twinkling lights. Often times I could detect the flashing blue/red of an emergency vehicle. The view was incredible.

As I grew older and really got into crafting, I always blamed my varied interests on being a Libra... a creative soul. I love to sew and quilt. I can wander for hours among bolts of fabric. For awhile I was an UndercoverWear lingerie consultant. It wasn't so much the clothes that attracted me as it was the fabrics and the hues that drew me. Cake decorating wasn't so much about the creating as it was all the colors of icing I could play with. Floral arranging in high school again, put me in the heart of natures colors. Don't even get me started on Polymer clay colors and the possibilities with canes. Then I was introduced to stamping and paper crafting. Oh my! Between the inks, papers, cardstock, embellishments, chalks... I was in color heaven!

It took me a long time to realize it wasn't so much about wanting to try everything as it was the colors and all their variations. I wanted to play with anything that put me in touch with the colors. For Christmas I asked (and received) the Crayola 120 count box of crayons. Now if I could justify purhasing the 160 count tower I saw at Michaels last week! :-D

My rainbow is full of color. What color is yours?

Stamping Challenges

Finally, time to play with my stamps. I belong to three forums at splitcoast stampers.(http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/). One is a Stamp 2 Spend challenge. The idea is to be mindful of what we're spending compared to what we're actually using. Its much easier to find time to buy pretty new toys and bright colored papers than it is to make the time to actually use them. In Stamp 2 Spend, we hope to find a balance. So, out came my scraps and Valu cardstock Iwant to use up for these two cards.

One of the other forums has begun a kind f Use It challenge. With this challenge, we are encouraged to go back through and find stamps (parts of or whole sets) we haven't used. We just had to have them, but there they sit, ink-free. The stamps I used in both of these cards fall into this challenge. They are part of a retired hostess set from Stampin' Up calle Sculpted Style. In the case of this set, it might not have been one I 'had to have' but more of it was the best of the Level 1 Hostess set that fit my tastes or I didn't already have.

So here's a challenge for you...

What stamp have you never used or haven't used since it's initial purchase use? Pull it out, give it some ink and link us to your creation.

Creative Blessings!

Kel

Journaling Through The Year

Happy New Year, everyone!

One of my GOALS for 2010 is to journal 'regularly'. Over at my yahoogroup, The Artists Journey (see link on left sidebar), I have posted the 365 daily prompts from The Writers Book of Days by Judy Reeves. Each prompt will post to the group automatically.

I wanted a special place just for the Book of Days prompts so I created a journal from a recycled diaper box, scrapbook paper (DCWV Holiday Slab) and binder rings.

So far I've written every day of 2010. Only 360 days to go!

There's still time to take the journey with me.