Happy Haunted Halloween over at the Spotted Canary!

I'm hosting a fun Challenge over on the Spotted Canary website, the InkadinkaBOO Challenge. There's a free class at Spotted Canary School that you can access, it should be available soon. After you've taken the class, create a fun project and then post it iin the forum -- you could win a cool stamping prize package!

Anyway, this is the stamped and embossed card I made for the Challenge. I never used to be a stamper, but I really like it now. It's one of those crafts that the more you do it the better you get.

The lace on the bottom of the card is stamped with  a VersaMark pad, sprinkled with black embossing powder and heat set. I inked the edge with brown ink to make it look a bit on the old side. It looks like real lace in person!

Love the glitter bats too, the come in orange, black and purple! With 3D Dots they really jump off the card!

I hope you'll check out the challenge when you get a minute and post a project.

I know I neglected this blog all summer -- but I wasn't completely off-the-grid the whole time -- I did do a couple of project posts on the Expert Blog.  You can check out a few of the fun projects, with detailed instructions (as well more details on my studio over-haul) that I posted on the Spotted Canary Expert Blog over the summer, here!

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your day!   

What I did on my summer vacation #3

Took a workshop on my birthday weekend with Donna Downey and two great friends Hannah and Leslie from Beattie Chicks at Artascope Studios in Portland. It was a wonderful weekend -- Friday night, Saturday and Sunday -- totally emersed in doing artsy stuff and not worrying about cooking or laundry or cleaning. Oh, and the husband dude got me an iPad. That's a whole other addiction I am dealing with, ha ha.

I think this is one of my journal pages from the weekend. Not sure as I don't recognize this, LOL. It might have been the beginning of something that got changed later. We did a lot of that during the weekend.

We went strawberry picking a couple of times and made a few batches of jam -- and froze a bunch for smoothies this winter. YUMM! The picking was great this summer and it's a fun thing I always love to do with my Mom.

The boy and I took horse riding lessons for a while. When we started trotting he got "smashed" a bit on the saddle and decided he didn't like it. It was almost the end of summer so we just stopped. I might start up again when I'm not so busy with classes and creative stuff. It's a nice relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I know I feel much more comfortable around horses and am not afraid to sit on them now. I can check that off my bucket list that's for sure!

More art journaling -- this page was made at the Beattie Chicks art journaling night. Love the way this page came out!

Just one more post -- but I'll post about some other stuff tomorrow! have a great day -- thanks for stopping by.

What I did on my Summer Vacation #2

I did some other things that were fun over the summer -- like finish the last few details in my studio.

My husband helped me install the bead board wainscotting, I painted the iron brackets and shelf and we got that installed as well. It's the perfect place for all my little chotchky's, jars of buttons, paints and lots of other things. The pencil sharpener reminds me of my Grandmother -- she had one just like it in her house that I always loved to use because the pencils were so SHARP. 

We went to the local country fair. I spent the evening walking around reminiscing about what it was like there when I was a kid. I got some fun pictures of my son and his friends too!

Took my Mother to Massachussetts to visit her sister -- then we all went to Connecticut to visit their brother. They took us shopping for lunch at Stew Leonard's, wow -- it was my first time and Wow. Just Wow. I loved that place. It would  be dangerous to live near there! I will say, I didn't like the way they corral you in to walking down EVERY aisle. I saw these beautiful sunflowers there and took a TON of pictures of them with my hipstamatic.

My sweet -- now taller than me -- boy holding some of those beautiful sunflowers at Stew's.

Here he is with his Massachussetts pal -- they look so cute celebrating her birthday together. He's too young for a girlfriend!

I've got just a few more posts of fun pictures for the summer - but I promise to mix a few artsy craftsy posts in there too. Thanks for stopping by -- have a GREAT day!

It was an Art Journaling Summer!

I've did a lot of Art Journaling this summer, it started with a workshop that I took on my birthday weekend with Donna Downey and then I continued working in a variety of styles and different journals I have made for the rest of the summer. It's a fun and healing way to create art and work out different feelings you have about things that are going on in your life. I also use my art journal pages to try new techniques and save those scraps of papers and things I don't want to throw away. You can check out a how-to make your own art journal here on a recent post I did at the Spotted Canary.,

In this page I was playing around with a resist technique using silver alcohol ink from Tim Holtz. I liked the technique but didn't like the way that I couldn't really control the size of the silver splats. I also loved the house that I had found in an old magazine and wanted to save that before it got lost in the piles of scraps in my studio, LOL.

I also wanted to share this tip, I use a large piece of newsprint, cut in half and stuck behind the page I am working on and over the page facing the page I am working on. This helps protect them from drips and splats that may happen. You could also use newspaper, wax paper or any scraps big enough to protect your pages.

I was playing around with image transfers and resists on this page. I have a couple of Caran D'ache NeoColor II wax crayons that I was picked up at the art store by mistake and I wanted to try them out. You can see that I did my heartfelt journaling on the bottom of the page and covered it up with the red circles.

Sometimes I'm really busy but want to create something so I go to my art journal and spend a few minutes here and there getting messy with paint, ink and whatever is on my desk. It's a great way to work out frustrations and move on with the day!

Thanks for stopping by -- hope you have are having a great weekend!

What I did on my Summer Vacation #1

I did a lot of flower and vegetable gardening. At first things weren't going so well,  but after a while the tables turned and everything started producing. I was able to make lots of tomato sauce, salsa, V8 juice for my kiddo and some yummy pickles. You can see some of my pretty flower gardens in a previous post, look for it here.

One of my favorite things to do with fresh tomato sauce is to make it quite juicy with lots of juicy fresh tomatoes and bring it to a boil. When it's boiling -- drop the temp on the burner down to medium or so and drop some eggs in the yummy sauce. When the eggs are done sprinkle fresh chopped cilantro on top for a delicious topping -- and enjoy!!

I also made my way down to NYC at the end of the summer for a couple of day long meetings at EK Success. My room mate and a couple other friends and I made the short trek into the city to go to Magnolia Bakery. It was fun -- even if it was raining and I stepped in a pot hole -- thankfully I could walk back to the train station!

My boy played the drums with the Merrymeeting Community Band for the entire summer and ended a great learning and fun experience with a parade in a local town. While we were waiting for the parade to start we took a few moments to walk around to enjoy some of the vendors selling their wares. I really loved this display of Chinese Lanterns. You can see a cool display my friend Tara made with her Chinese Lanterns here.

We also went to the beach -- though not as many times as we wanted. At least we made it! This particular day was a little  breezy and overcast so we just enjoyed the sand and stayed out of the water.

Thanks for stopping by -- I'd love to know what fun things did you do over the summer that took you away from blogging and the internet?

Mixed Media Workshop Two

If I haven't convinced you to sign up for this fun class over at My Creative Classroom yet -- maybe this will send you over the edge, LOL! This is a sneak peak (yes -- the project this week is much bigger than this) from the project for week two -- each week you will also find a fun art journal presentation, handouts, some images, a high quality presentation and more!

This class is jam packed with 5 weeks of great information you don't want to miss. Enrollment will be open for another few days!

Hope to see you there, thanks for stopping by -- enjoy your weekend!

I love Gesso

I was editing some photos for my class this week and this one kept jumping out at me.....I love the perspective, color and light.

However, I don't love that the jar is almost empty now that the project is complete and I need to order a new one! Have a great day -- it's almost Friday -- thanks for stopping by. I'm hoping for a headache free day today!

Mixed Media Workshop Two

It's not too late to sign up for this course!! It's a 5 week course over at My Creative Classroom -- you can find the details on it here. See all the courses I'm teaching this semester here!

Thanks for stopping by....enjoy the rest of your day!

Hobby Lobby Magazine

Before I borage you with photos and things from my summer away from blogging I thought I'd share some happy mail I got yesterday -- thanks Shane ;-)

I don't have a Hobby Lobby near me -- but recently -- well last spring -- I designed some projects for a magazine they have for sale in their store. It's funny how far ahead designers have to work to get print advertising projects completed. It seems normal to me now since I've been working in this industry for so long -- but my friends and family will say -- what -- you are working on Christmas and it's only Memorial Day?? They just don't get it. Maybe that's one of the reasons I feel out of sync...well, that's another blog post..but anyway.

I was happy to get this little tidbit in the mail from my pal Shane Hershey EK Success yesterday. He's so funny, we have the same weird sense of humor! ha ha. At first I didn't know why they sent it.....I thought maybe they were treating us to a magazine subscription to make sure we were up on the latest trends......

......and then I started flipping through the pages and came to this two page spread!

and saw this. I had so much fun making these package decorations, cards and banner. The packages were definitely a lot of fun! Made from scraps of papers and fun trendy embellishments.

And then I remembered I had made some Thanksgiving projects too....and flipped through some more pages and found these fun place settings and napkin rings. Fun fact about me -- I'm a lefty and always flip through magazines from the back to the front. I like that the title is Home is Where the Heart is -- though maybe it should be Art from the Heart, ha ha!

Well, that's it for today. I've got to get to work on my latest new class at My Creative Classroom -- Mixed Media Workshop Two. It started last week but you have some time to sign up if you want. Thanks for stopping by -- have an artful day!

Making some changes...

I'll be making some changes to my blog in the next week or so - and then I'll be back with regular posts!

Christmas In July

Yeah, I know -- it's been a while. I've been enjoying the summer -- I had such a busy year with classes and projects that I needed an electronic vacation -- and since my boy has been on vacation for a while -- I decided to take one as well. It's been nice, but I definitely have missed blogging and have had a few guilty twangs now and then.

I have been working on a few things for myself as well as go to a workshop with Donna Downey for my birthday, start English Saddle horse lessons and we also started an eating challenge that I spend a lot of time cooking for! On top of that I've been taking care of my vegetable and flower gardens (which are look amazing -- I ate the first cucumber last night and noticed I have baby tomatoes too, yahoo) and trying out a new ARt Journaling group -- which I totally love!

But, I wanted to take a minute and share with you something fun that's going on at My Creative Classroom.....we're celebrating Christmas in July!

Christmas in July? I can hardly believe that it's mid-July already! At My Creative Classroom where I teach online classes we've designated this week is "Christmas in July" week. We've got a full week of Christmas and gift giving classes prepared for you. Whether you're a Cricut nut, into Spellbinders, a paper crafter, or a rubber stamp lover there's a Christmas and gift themed class for you. Go check it out HERE.

Here's a little sneakie peakie of my Sparkly Spellbinders Holiday Class -- it starts this Friday. Hope to see you there....now back to regular summer schedule ;-) Thanks for stopping by -- enjoy your day!

Gardening Season is HERE!

Now that spring is finally here (well -- I'm questioning that as it was 47 degrees this morning) and I've cleaned up a good part of my of my to-do list; I've been spending time doing things that I love -- like gardening, a little junking -- and a little cooking as well.

Yesterday after spending the better part of the day shoveling dirt and mulch, pulling weeds, raking and planting all the plants I bought at the Library Plant Sale I made a batch of granola. I don't usually share my recipes -- but thought you would enjoy it.

I try to feed my family with as many healthy foods as I can, but when a box of cereal is $5.25 I seriously question whether I should just pick up the sugary goodness that I know they will love. Then my brain kicks in and I decide to make my own granola, and you can too because it's easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Though it has about 350 calories per serving, its also only about $5.50 per batch, and each batch is more than double what you get in a box for $5.50 -- and it has NO high fructose corn syrup or preservatives!

Here's my recipe for Maple Craisin Flax Granola:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together in a large bowl:

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce - or home made like mine was

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maply syrup

Mix in a smaller bowl:

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1 cup pecans

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup shreded coconut

Add the above ingrediants to liquid mixture and mix together until everything is completely coated. Add 7 cups of old fashioned oatmeal and mix until the oatmeal is completely coated.

Spread out the mixture on large jelly roll pan and put in the hot oven. If you have two pans split the mixture between the two pans and the cooking time should decrease! Set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off mix the ingrediants around on the pan -- moving the granola on the top to the bottom. Set the timer for 15 more minutes. Keep cooking and mixing until the granola is crunchy -- about an hour or so. My oven is a little off.

Remove the granola and put it in a large clean bowl. Add to the cooked mixture 1 cup of craisins or raisins and 1/2 cup ground flax seeds and mix together completely. Let cool before storing in an air tight container. You want to make sure the granola is completely cool before storing! -- or pre-measure into 3/4 cup servings and store in small baggies for a quick and easy breakfast. That's it -- not only is it DELICIOUS but it's economical and your family will love it. For me -- I know what goes into the granola -- no TSP or other artificial ingrediants. I have a child with a lot of allergies and try to limit the amount of preservatives and chemicals he eats. TSP is often used in cereals as an emulsifier -- but it's also used as a cleaning agent. I found this paragraph about it:

A nonsudsing powdered TSP compound formulated for heavy duty cleaning. Preferred by painting and cleaning professionals for removing heavy deposits of grime, smoke, soot, and chalked paint. Kills mildew when mixed with bleach.

Do you really want to eat cereal with THAT in it?? ewww. Anyway, enjoy the recipe! Thanks for stopping by, now that my to-do list is pretty free I will be posting more creative projects! Enjoy your day.

Happy Mother's Day

I know, you've seen this card done a million times, but my Mother saw it in a card magazine and absolutely loved it -- so I had to make it for her.

But, I had to make it and add my own spin to it. The templates I've seen around make a card with a flower pot that's about 4" tall and the overall card is pretty tiny. This card is too big to fit in the largest envelope I have -- it's at least 8" tall or taller ;-) I also embossed the body of the flower pot with a Cuttlebug Embossing folder, stitched up the sides, used pre-made flowers and the flower pot edge.

I know that she'll love it -- no matter how many times it's been done! Anyway, for all my friends that are Mother's -- HAPPY Mother's Day! Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Keep your Face to the Sun

Along time ago I was blog hopping and saw the most beautiful card -- and upon reading discovered that it was created by squashing pansies in a flower press (or something like that) on top of watercolor paper. Sadly -- I don't remember where I saw it or the name of the artist. Her card was beautiful though, and I think she had something to do with Stampin' Up.

Anyway, since I don't have the patience to wait for a flower press to do the job, I ran this orange pansy through my big shot on top of a quote that I had created and printed on cardstock. The flower turned into a squishy mess, but once I had wiped away all the debris, I thought it looked amazing! I was surprised that the purple detail was in the center. I think I'll be stopping by the Greenhouse to pick up a flat of pansies when I get a minute or two to breath.

Well, even though I've got twenty million things going on, I couldn't leave this beauty sitting on my desk. So I rifled through my scrap bin and came up with this quick card. It really only took me about 15 minutes -- though that's 15 minutes that could have been spent writing instructions, LOL -- or 15 minutes more sleep. Well, sleep is over rated anyway. I'll just stay up 15 minutes later than I planned.

This was a fun creation, and exactly the creative respit I needed to be able to spend the rest of the night on the computer writing instructions!

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a fabulous week so far!

Sneakie Peakie

I've been busier than busy the last week or so -- but wanted to share a sneak peak of Lesson 1 from Spellbinders Card Workshop that I'm teaching at My Creative Classroom. It started on Friday but there's still time to register - but you might want to hurry because it's almost full. If you mss out, it'll be running again in the Fall Semester!

Hope you have a great weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Our trip to Acadia

Thought I would share a few pictures from our little trip to Acadia National Park last week. These pictures are straight out of my Canon 10D. No editing AT ALL! Love that.

Doesn't the root coming down from the right look like a skeleton hand? Creepy.

Playing with the depth of field on my camera. I always forget what settings to use until I start using them again.

And on the way home, we HAD to stop at the Big Chicken Barn. It's literally in a HUGE chicken barn -- though this time they didn't have anything I couldn't live without!

Thanks for stopping by, it's Wednesday - halfway to the weekend! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Cherry Blossom Birthday Card Tutorial

What do you do when you are short on time, have forgotten you need a birthday card -- and can't get to the store to buy one...not to mention that buying cards makes you feel guilty because you have a studio FULL of supplies to make cards?? Well, you look through your supplies until you find something you LOVE (like the Cherry Blossom Vellum stickers shown here) and make a card. I will say I spent more time LOOKING at my supplies than making this card, LOL.

Here's a side-ish view so you can see the dimension, LOVE dimension!

And a close-up of the tag. Lately I've really been into making little tags for cards and things.

If you want to make a card like this, or see how I did it, check out the detailed Tutorial over on the Spotted Canary blog that I write for.

Sorry for long time with no posts. Last week was school vacation week and we took a little vacation up to Acadia National Park. It was a nice few days away without the computer, TV and lots of other things. I've got a busy few weeks but I hope to post more often!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!