I Am Gifted with the Liebster Award!

My wonderful friend Barb (barbaralynn on Split Coast) has named me as one of the recipients of the Liebster Blog Award!

I am truly amazed, since being such a newbie to blogging, I hardly even know why she would do such a kind and thoughtful thing.  However she did!  Isn't that just like her?  Thank you Barb!!  Check out her wonderful blog here:
Inkingintoretirement

Well, it seems that I am to pass this award along to 5 others.  So...I am so pleased to pass this reward along to the following talented crafters who have enriched my life.  I urge you to visit their blogs and leave them some well-deserved love!

1.  Paige
2.  Joan
3.  April
4.  Shelly
5.  Lynn

Please take a few minutes and visit each of their lovely blogs, admire their wonderful creations and leave them some love!  They deserve it!!

Hugs!

Lou & Bijou's Nightly Routine

Pets like their routines, and birds are no exception to this.  Lou (our Budgie) and Bijou (our Lovebird) have this routine:
When I come home from work, the heat downstairs has been turned on for a while to warm it up (they spend most of their days upstairs, where we have the heat on).  Everyone greets me at the door, hubby, Lou & Bijou.  After greeting them all back, Lou & Bij decide whether they want to be on our shoulders or run and play tag on the kitchen & family room floor.

Eventually they always opt for the tag-you're-it game.  Bijou is usually the front runner, and typical younger-child fashion, Lou is the "wait for me, I wanna come too!" kind of follower.  We prepare our dinner with them underfoot and have become accustomed to watching out for them.  Sometimes when it gets too distracting, they are put on a towel over the back of a kitchen chair and perch there to supervise.

I tried to get them to be still long enough to grab a picture

Showing the different blues on their backs.

I shot these 2 pictures really quickly with my iPhone, so they are not the best.  But I was trying to capture how differently they are colored, even though they are both blue.

They are both the same size, weighing about 50 grams each.  But you can see that they have very different body shapes.  Hmmm, people do too!

Lou is a vibrant teal & aqua with black & white accents.  Bij has a mix of gray-blues, some violet and a peach forehead.



Wow, my floor looks dirty!  Actually the linoleum is over 20 years old and needs to be replaced.  It's seen lots of wear & tear that children can do to a kitchen LOL.  It's clean, just lots of marks on it!

They like to worry shoelaces, working on the little plastic coating on the ends.  Bijou had claimed Hubby's shoe and wouldn't let Lou get on it.  She had been running back & forth, from side to side trying to join him & he wouldn't let her play.

So I picked her up and showed her that Daddy had two shoes.  She thought that was pretty cool and got busy with her own set of laces.  Bijou of course, did not play anymore, just spent all of his time watching her to make sure she stayed put.  Pfft!

Full tummy and sleepy.

After they eat their dinner (which they refuse to do until the requisite amount of playing tag) they each retreat to specific spots. Bijou picks me or my husband and has some snuggle time.  Lou perches up high on a dried grapevine branch outside of the play cage.  She faces us and sits, preening, dozing and sometimes singing the prettiest collection of sleepy songs and little chirps.
Here's Bijou on my chest while I'm in the recliner.  He flattens out just like a little hampster or mouse, and gets a nice petting.  I usually hum to him.  Then by 8:00 or 8:30 they are ready to go to bed for the night.

That's our little family at the moment!

Dancing In the Rain!

Here is a card made for my dear friend, Jeanette's "Rain in the Forest Swap".  Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be forest related, The Forest is what we call her community on SCS, and she is known there as the Forest Ranger.  (Don't know why I am explaining this because I think all of my followers know her! LOL)   Anyway...

The color scheme is SU's Crushed Curry & Mellon Mombo, and the adorable Umbrella DP is from American Crafts, their Hello Sunshine series.  I'm not sure where I bought the stamp from...I've had it a while.  The ribbon is from either Michael's or AC Moore, bought on sale of course.  A Martha Stewart border punch was used along the edge and Mellon Mombo paper mounted on the inside panel to show through.

Here is a picture of a bouquet of flowers that our son brought me for my birthday a few weeks back.  The picture was actually taken TWO WEEKS after he brought me the flowers.  I texted him this picture because it was unbelievable that they lasted so long.  These flowers were my color inspiration for the card.

Here is a closer image showing more detail on the cute umbrellas. I only had one sheet of that DP, and now that it's gone, I think I may just have to get some more.  I really like it.

I certainly hope that those who receive my card in Jeanette's swap like them.

And remember:
Just DANCE!!  It will make you feel good!

Humorous Guy/Geek Card

My friend April is hosting a humorous card swap.  That's just my style, especially for men.  So here's what I made for the swap:

The stamps are from My Favorite Things. The panel and tag are popped up to give some dimension.  The DP is from SU, sorry that I don't know the name of it. It's colored with Prismas & Gamsol. There's a shiny silver rivet on the tag.

Here's the inside, it says
"The geek shall inherit the Earth".  Probably true.  I should know, I'm married to one!

This stamp set is really fun, since the shirt and computer face are blank and there's a lot of tiny sayings that you can put on the shirt, computer, etc.  I used some on the front left panel.

Binary, anyone?

011000111

       ;)

Dueling Darlings February Challenge!

Here it is, at the last minute (so to speak)!

The Dueling Darlings are at it again, and since it's the 15th of the month, it's time to post our creations from Debbie, our lovely hostess this round.

And what a great kit she sent us, the cutest little Valentine's images, a sweet sentiment for the inside, pretty DP, ribbons, flowers, brads, all kinds of goodies to work with.  One fun element was a wonderful doily die cut.  This is my first to use a doily die cut and I was so happy to get to play with it.

I decided to use the red & white polka dot DP that was in the kit as a backdrop for the doily. Each layer is popped up so it has considerable depth but I wasn't successful in capturing it in my photos.  The card base is die cut with my Big Shot, then stamped and clear embossed with a fun stamp of candy hearts. I just love that stamp!

Debbie included the sweet "love" charm that I hung off of the doily on the bottom right side. The adorable mouse & heart is colored with SU markers and I replaced the flower on the image with a bright green bling-flower!  Used Nesties scallops to cut out the image and the green layer behind it, dragging the edges over the stamp pad to give them some color.  The ribbon is something from my stash, it has tiny pink polka dots on it (I know, can you believe that I used so much PINK??)  Ha ha!

Here's a peek at the inside.  I oval punched the sentiment, dividing it up into two segments, accented again by a bit of green bling.  Since I was gone over 14 hours yesterday between work and church, Hubby & I are celebrating Valentine's Day tonight (although we don't actually do much to celebrate it) and is his card.  Debbie: hubby said he likes the mouse!  And he likes pink more than I do LOL!!!

Actually, I had a lot of fun with this kit.  We were challenged to post who we thought the saying related to in our life.  Well, so very many people flooded my mind.  Family (here and in heaven), of course my hubby (even when he's difficult ha ha!) and so very many dear friends.  I can't even count how many times my friends have helped me through tough times when I didn't think that I could cope!  And my friends in the Dueling Darlings are counted amongst those friends that I rely on for cheer, support and fun!  Love you all!

Jan 18th Mystery Swap

There is a group of swappers on Split Coast Stampers who participate in a Mystery Swap.  Every other month, one member (the host for the round) selects an image for us to use, maybe also some DP or a sentiment to go with it, and sends the Mystery kits to the current month's host.  That host includes the kit with the swap returns and we begin the process all over again.

Ok, have I confused you yet??  It's easier than how it sounds with my convoluted explanation.  Anyway, this round is my turn to be the host. So, last November, when our last Mystery Swap was due, I sent the hostess my Mystery kits and the gang has had December and part of January to create their cards.  The cards are due to me on Jan. 18th, which is also the date that we can reveal on our blogs or in our gallery our creations with the kit.

D. Morgan's illustration of the stamp image
 on the wood block

I chose to use a D. Morgan stamp (yes, I'm a big fan and have lots of her stamps) entitled "A Better Friend" marketed by Stamps Happen, Inc.  Here's a picture of her artwork (see left).

I am really excited to see what everyone comes up with using this image.  I'm sure to learn a lot from these talented women.

Here is what I made this round.  It's a 6x6 inch square card, colored with Prismacolor pencils and using Gamsol to blend.

At first I thought of making a winter scene, but, hey - it's January and I needed to think "Spring" .  So I tried to put the trees in bloom and dropping some of the flower petals on the ground.

The cats always gave me a hard time, but this time maybe I have had enough practice with shading to achieve a better look.  I haven't tried this stamp in almost a year, so maybe I'm progressing in my coloring technique.

Front close-up

Here is a closer view, showing the shiny dotted background paper.  It's from DCWV in their "Linen Closet" pack.  It's a great pack if you haven't seen it, check it out.  It's pretty versatile.

Inside panel

I also decided to add a corner punched piece of coordinating solid color stock on the inside for an extra touch.

I will post the returns from my Mysterious Swapping Friends as soon as they all come in. That way you can drool over everyone's creations.

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you all a week blessed with health and happiness!

It's the 15th - Time for Another Dueling Darling Round!

It's the 15th of the month, and that means it's time for the Dueling Darlings to post their creations sent to us by this month's hostesses: Melina & Joan!  (The Dueling Darlings are two teams of friends from SCS, The Dazzlers & the Divas) who take turns hosting a challenge.  The hostesses send a card kit to their team mates and we create and post our response on the 15th.

Kit Contents

Here's what the lovely Melina sent to us for the January duel.  The theme this month is "It's the Little Things" and she sent 3 tiny but cute little images, 3 little blue punched circles, 2 green pearls, a piece of tan ribbon & white baker's twine, a white button, yellow paper clip and 2 swatches of DP.

The challenge was to use all 3 images on our card, as many of the embellishments as we could and to add our own sentiment.

We are also to post the first thing that came to our mind when we opened the kit and read that "It's the Little Things" as our theme.   Hmmm, well, after 2 new babies being born to my co-workers this past year, I have to admit, I thought of making a baby card with the kit!  But once I started working with it, things went in another direction!

Here's my finished card:

I thought that a side step card would allow each of the little images a chance to be noticed. I punched them into circles and (if you look closely) you can see that the large panel has embossed circles on it.

Melina recently posted to her blog that she loves circle shapes and likes to use them on cards.  Well, it's the little things, right?  So, I decided to use circles!

When it came time to add a sentiment, I found two teeny, tiny sentiments among my vast array of SU sets, and Voila ~ not a baby card, but a "Hello" card instead.  What can I say?

Here's a glimpse of the inside where I used the ribbon and the rest of the striped DP:

I'm a bit proud that I managed to use all of the kit contents with one exception:
the paper clip.  Sorry Melina, I just couldn't accomplish that one!!  Ha ha, but you gals are sure teaching me about using DP, that's for sure!

I hope that you visit the blogs of the other Dueling Darlings!  There are links to their blogs on the right sidebar here.  While there, be sure to leave them some much-deserved love on this month's challenge.

As for posting our list of "Little Things"...well, with me, the list could become a book.  Much too long to post here.  Permit me to say this: I tend to take a big picture perspective on life and my relationships.  But the big picture is comprised of all the little things.  So little things matter a lot.
However, it's a double-edged sword.  While we take great pleasure in the little things, we also have to let go of the little things that cause us stress or anger.  I find that when I do that, life is a lot easier for me.  But, I do have to remind myself to let go at times!  Continual improvement is how I view myself!  Ha ha!  Thanks for visiting and putting up with my rambling.  Make it a great day!