I'm back!

It was not an easy journey. The HughesNet guy, Trevor, was really sweet. He had 3 modems on his truck 'new' from the company. It took the 3rd one to get one that worked. I also learned that I shouldn't have to shut my modem down. It sounds like HughesNet was hoping to extend the life of my modem until the warranty ran out and then I'd have to replace it. LOL I love their connection - just not their customer service.

On a more creative note, I'm scrambling to finish up 2 sistah packets to be mailed tomorrow. My daughter called this morning to ask how I felt about becoming a grandma NEXT WEEK! Ummm... if Abigail says that's when she wants grandma there, I guess it will have to work. LOL So I'm trying to get all of my deadline stuff out of the way by Monday - just in case.

So Monday, I will have a Magazine Monday card for you, at least 1 Teapot Tuesday card and then from there it's whatever I can accomplish while I wait to hear from my daughter.

Creative Blessings

Kel

Off-Line

Just a quick pit-stop to let you know the root of my recent internet issues has been found. My Hughes Net modem died this morning. I drove into town to update everyone and let you know I won't be back on-line until middle of next week.

In the mean time, keep being creative!

Blessings

Kelly

Done!

I'll post my Tea Pot Tuesday Destination card tomorrow. I just don't have it in me to cut and glue another piece of CS tonight. I've been working on the finalizing of this mini album for almost 11 hours. I'm beat. The good news is - the album is DONE!

Yep. My photos for the More Outstanding Mini Albums - Call for submissions have been uploaded into Jessica Acs capable hands. I won't know for a few weeks if Adrian's To-Do List made the cut.

But however it works out, I have a 'first reader' type of mini album for my tootsie pop! The book is centered around all the things she has to do when she comes for a visit. I've done the journaling in simple words and phrases so she'll gradually be able to read it on her own. Hopefully it will be something she'll treasure as she gets older. Her mom isn't the type to 'collect' keepsakes. She hates clutter. So I guess the album will be an Adrian and Grandma thing until she's maybe graduating from High School. What a kick that would be for her to look back on 16 years from now!

And if I know Adrian, she'll love reading the book as much as I've enjoyed making it for her.

Sorry, I can't share more than that. If it's chosen for publication, it can not be previously published anywhere.

Here's hoping you'll get to see it in print!

Creative Blessings!

Kel

Magazine Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

There isn't going to be a new card for today. I'm on the final touches of the mini-album for the More Outstanding Mini Albums submission deadline. Which is tomorrow!

So for today, I'd like to suggest that you click on the I've been featured in Outstanding Mini Albums button to the right and see the new mini albums that Jessica has showcased in the past couple of weeks. The people who submit to her are so very talented. I hope I can produce what she's looking for. I don't want to compete - just fit in.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

Teapot Tuesday

Yep... a day late. I had a card yesterday but the more I looked at it the more I just didn't like it for the challenge. So I made a new one today and I'm much more pleased with the results.

I pulled the idea from a card by Mary Ayers in PaperWorks June 2004. Mary does lovely work and one of her signatures I've noticed in her cards is stitching. I made her card minus the stitching. Instead I added lace and pearls. Otherwise, the cards are very similar. I used lace where she used a torn paper strip beneath the narrow accent strip. She backed her sentiment tags with the same paper. She also put eyelets on the left hand side of each tag in the upper and lower corners and used those to thread twine through then tied them around the accent strip.

I wanted a bit more elegance for this challenge. For Tea Pot Tuesday this week, our destination is a creative lady in WI who in the past year has had the rug pulled out from under her in a variety of ways, forcing her to start her life over. Our mission this week was to send her blessings and cheers as she moves forward on her journey.

Although it looks vintage here, the background of the pattern is white. I used the pearls as 'bullet points' and pop dots to add dimension to the tags and butterflies. Those butterflies are cut from the same 12x12 sheet of paper as the background.

SUPPLIES:

DCWV The Four Season - Spring butterflies

SU - Baja Breeze CS and Ink

Recollections - Pearls

Vintage lace trip

I also took a tip from my dear friend, Carla, and added embellishment to the inside using more of the same 12x12 sheet and one of the butterflies. If you've not been to her blog, I highly recommend it. Her work is just AWESOME! and ever so ELEGANT.

My desk looks pretty much the same as last week except I have the laptop in my work area. I need to let it take over the dining room table for the next couple of weeks while I put a lot of time actually designing/ creating in the studio.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!

Yep, I have a card and on time this week. I could say miracles happen but truth be told, I needed a card for my oldest sister's birthday last week so decided it was a good time to try and stay ahead of the game.

I'm still pulling from the 2005 issue of Take Ten Studios Volume 4. My card is done almost identical to Kathy Skinner's God Bless America (pg 70-71) She used a stripe stencil as her template to roll the stars and stripe wheel over to create image-stamped stripes on her white background. Would never have thought of that. (I'll have to do a card using that in the near future) She cut her red panel ribbon from CS, sponged the edges of a Stars and Stripes image (SU) and matted it on blue as her focal image. It was very striking and I thought the layout would play well with other images.

I chose to dry emboss my Very Vanilla base with the Happy Birthday folder, I made the ribbon from Anna Griffin DP and stamped the flower basket (Memories of the Heart - SU) I love working with my Derwent water color pencils. For the flowers I chose Light Violet, Deep Cadmium, Copper Beach, Sap Green and Pink Madder Lake.

Bob leaves for his 3 weeks in Chicago tomorrow. My plan is to do the Tea Pot Tuesday before I outline the rest of my very long To Do list.

Creative Blessings!

Tea Pot Tuesday and WOWW

I'm squeaking in tonight to post this. I have 2 things to share with you today.

First off, I started the card yesterday as the challenge for Tea Pot Tuesday. The destination of this week's card is a woman who received many

cards last year from our group - for her 108th birthday! Can you imagine? Well, Eula Cousins is an extraordinary woman. Last year she sent a Thank You note to the group and told us a little bit about herself. You can read it here:

TEAPOT TUESDAY DESTINATION STATION #MMTPT162

I thought someone as special as Eula deserved a special bouquet so I chose my favorite floral stamp, The Stipple Rose - retired from SU.

I stamped the image in Tuxedo Black, water colored the image in Derwent watercolor pencils in Sap Green and Crimson Lake. I masked it off with a oval mat and chalked the remainder of the base in Creamy Caramel. I matted it with Certainly Celery and accented it with Red Seam Binding Ribbon (SU). As a finishing touch, I added iridescent Stickles for a little sparkle.

I need to write a brief note to Miss Eula, telling her a bit about my life in the Ozarks then it's ready to mail.

The other picture today is today's What's On My Work surface Wednesday. The table isn't too bad right now. I'm sure this will change next week once I have the house to myself and am finishing up the album for More Outstanding Mini Albums. For now, I have some Pearl Ex watercolors I made and am sharing with a SCS buddy. I'm going to make mine in the water paint wells (round pallet in the right background)

I doubt I'll be back this week... but you never know :-)

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday Returns!

Yep, although it is late afternoon I do have a card for this week. As I told you a few weeks back, I'd selected several 'inspiration' items from the 2005 Take Ten by Stampington. This week I combined MM with my SCS August Challenge envelope from Shell.

Shell's items for us to play with were some stamped images from Clear Dollar Stamps, a couple of mats of DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies paper and embellishments. I decided to get ahead of the game and get my daughter's birthday card done ahead of time. Sometimes I manage this better than others.

My inspiration card is by Jenn Mason. Her concept was Gifting in Ten Minutes... cards that include either a handmade postcard or a gift card. I'll be including a Starbucks GC in my daughter's. Although she isn't a big fan of pink, the color lent itself to the paper I had to work with. She'll live through one year. With a new baby girl due in just 4 weeks, it's not the only pink she's seeing these days.

You'll find a link to Jenn's website HERE and a link to her BLOG For Birthday Kitty, she used a beautiful image of a cat with a birthday hat from Lost Coast Designs stamped to the far right of a tri-fold card. She also used ribbon/ bow to attach the mat on the front of the card bearing the sentiment. I went girly and simplistic with mine. With my daughter, the less froo froo the better.

Because I know this is not a 'keeper' card, I used ValuCS in Baby pink to go with the DCWV DP.

I cut the 2 scoops of ice cream apart and popped the caramel scoop with 1 pop dot and the cherry with 2 pop dots. I also added red stickles to the cherry.

The grandtoddler is here this week so I don't see a lot of stamping going on. Well - except for her. She picked out 3 of her own stamps at Michaels yesterday and was stamping with Grandpa before bedtime... and again right after breakfast this morning.

Creative Blessings