Copic Marker Cards!!! I love these markers!!

I have had so much fun today! Between my new Copic markers, Core'dinations Paper and the Cuttlebug, I would have a hard time choosing which one I'm enjoying the most! These three products make for awesome cardmaking and stamping.

The first card I made was with Joyce's "Paintbrush" stamp. Important: Do not use StazOn with your Copic markers. It will bleed. I used Memento Black. I used three orange-red markers for the flower, two green markers for the leave. The frame is in a teal blue. Used a teal Core'dination paper, Orange textured cardstock and the Cuttlebug with a little green ribbon and orange bling.

The second card I also made with Joyce's "Iris" stamp. Joyce's stamps are great for painting with Copic markers. I used two purple markers and one yellow for the flower and two green for the leaves. I smudged the rim of the card with StazOn purple (fine for using around the card, just not painting in the stamp). Purple Core'dination paper, Yellow textured cardstock and Cuttlebug with some bling and our Texana Designs "Thank You" stamp.

Have a great day!

CRUISIN' AND SCRAPBOOKIN' - GREAT COMBINATION!!!

Joyce and I spent the day in Temple at Wendaful Scrapbooks teaching a class, discussing future classes and talking about the upcoming First Wendaful Scrapbook Cruise (October 31st - November 5th). I've been on several cruises and went on this particular cruise just last spring with a girlfriend, but it was not a scrapbooking cruise. It was great fun! I've always wanted to do a scrapbooking cruise and this one just plopped into my lap unexpectedly.

Janet Bradshaw and I will be doing a Round Robin at Wendafuls on May 9th and teaching tea bag and iris folding classes June 13th.

I also purchased my first set of Copic Markers and can't wait to get started. I will attend an Introductory Class in April at Wendaful Scrapbooks, but also spend some time looking for great Copic Marker tutorials.

And, I found a great denim shirt!

Not to mention, that one of my high school girlfriends, (who lives in Temple) that I had not seen in over 30 years, came by the store and surprised me. We had a wonderful visit and promised to not wait 30 more years (ha!) to get together again! Overall, A GREAT DAY!!

Maggie and Petey's Playday

Maggie and her pet snake, Petey, have been together since her sophomore year in high school. She is now a senior at U.T. When Mags got home from school today, she and Petey had playtime together. I know how many feel about snakes, but Petey is a really fun snake. I had the best time with her yesterday while Kenny and Maggie cleaned out her home. I was on the computer holding her and she decided that the books in the bookshelf looked interesting. She curled in behind the books and knocked all of them off the shelf. They were falling all over me, but I couldn't catch them and continue to hold on to Petey at the same time. I wish I had pictures of it. I don't. But I do have pictures of Maggie and Petey having fun together.

Catching Up - Three Posts Today!

As most of you know, we have been busy sprucing up our condo where Maggie lives! She has really taken ownership on her place and spent many hours (all of us) painting. In fact, she loves painting baseboards (Ugh!) and won't let anyone else touch them. Bless her heart!!

Unfortunately, we did not take before pictures. So I have some "during" pictures and then will post more after the carpet is put in. The condo is 3 floors (sort of). The first floor is a one car garage and the entry way. The second floor is a rather large living area, dining area and kitchen and the third floor is the master bedroom and bath, and second bedroom and bath. We bought this the Spring of Maggie's freshman year at U.T. and decided it would be better to invest than to pay rent for 3+ more years. It is located off Enfield and Exposition - great location!

The master bedroom is 15 x 13 with beautiful sunlight pouring in throughout the day. This place is filled with windows!

Every wall in this place was painted a different dark color. We primed every wall - some twice - and Maggie picked out this cool light green color for the entire place - except for the kitchen and second bath. We decided to keep some of the funkiness in the place. Afterall, she is a college student. Painting the stairs was a real trip. Fortunately, we have two tall men in our family and they had no problem reaching the high spots.

The living room and master bedroom have hardwood floors. We are replacing the carpet in the stairs and second bedroom and will eventually replace the tile in the kitchen and entry way.

The first 3 pictures: Maggie's bedroom. We completed this room first because the mattresses were being delivered on Friday morning. Maggie and Tom set up the bed frame and night stand just in time for their arrival. Then Maggie and Kenny enjoyed hangin' on the bed.

The last picture is her large living area. All that's left is the baseboard and we can arrange the furniture! Tom and I are headed over there now to measure the carpet and get it ordered!

Backyard This Morning!

Here are a few pictures taken this morning! This is what we learned: Texas native plants really do come back! Asparagus ferns are the hardiest of all ferns and we will plant more this year. My cactus garden is hard to weed!!! Too many pricklies!
We've been planting tomatoes for almost 20 years and talk about spoiled!! I'm always a little sad when are tomatoes are gone and I have to "make do" with commercial ones.
















I love sharing my neighbors plants!! Thanks to them I get to enjoy the above plants and before too long our entire back fence will be solid morning glories!

This is our invisible fountain that we got at Hill Country Water Gardens last summer. They have so many to choose from. I hope to get one more very soon!

A Different Kind of Creating!!

This has been a labor intensive week at the Mitchell household, but in many ways instant gratification! Today, Tom and I took some time out from the rent house and condo work to plant our tomatoes and bell peppers and do a little pruning. He spent many hours last Spring creating a fern and cactus garden. Lucky for us, Kenny works at Hill Country Water Gardens and we were able to take advantage of his discount and purchase some beautiful pots and plants. Here are some pictures of last year and what we hope our yard will look like again in a few months. We have a huge backyard and have so many dreams and ideas as to what to do with it. We are still in the dreaming stage.

CUTTLEBUGGIN AND METAL ART

I spent the day with friends making cards and a picture frame. It was a good day and saw many of my Scrapbook Fever friends.

I actually got some things done. Sometimes, I just socialize and piddle around!!

I made several cards, but decided to post this one. I just love my Cuttlebug and both card and frame were made using the Cuttlebug.

THIS IS MY KIND OF WEATHER!!

I love this weather - if - one can stay home and putter around the house or read a good book or make the card of the day!

Today, I'm featuring our Texana Designs cactus and "thank you" stamps.

The "Thank You" and cactus stamps were embossed with JudiKins Rustique Bent Nail.

The cactus was painted with Pearlescence paints by Yasutomo. I used yellow, orange, and copperish colors.

I used Stampin' Up green(can't remember the name) card stock and core'dinations brown paper from their vintage collection. I used the Cuttlebug bubble folder on the brown paper.

And then I put the final touches on with brown and and dark orange bling.

Thank you card!

Good morning! I'm sending out a stamp order today and always send a "thank you" note with each order. Today I'm showcasing the Texana Designs "Texas Star". This stamp takes on an entirely different look when it is painted. I used Navy and Gold Twinkling H2O's on the star, embossed it with Ranger's Rich Red embossing powder. I used the "thanks" Cuttlebug folder on blue card stock and pearl and star embellishments. Also red and white polka dot ribbon.

Have a great day! My yard and plants are soooooooooooooo happy with this rain.

IRIS FOLDING - One of My Favorite Things To Do!

I love to iris fold and hope to teach a class an Iris Folding Class at Wendaful's this summer! I must admit, I did not do these card today. I was in a (forced or go insane) organizing mood this morning and started organizing my Texana Designs computer files. I ran across some of my favorite iris folding cards and thought I would share them with you. The Texas iris folding card is Janet Bradshaw's creation and has become one of my favorites! She used her Cricut "states" cartridge to create the pattern. Last Fall we made some with Christmas paper and they were a big hit! My wrapping paper is awesome to do these cards. It's so light weight and makes for an easier fold.

Have a great day and I hope the time change doesn't make you too weird!!!

Music and Laughter - Awesome Combination!!

Good morning! It's Friday and suppose to be a beautiful day! Music and laughter are two of my favorite things to do. I wanted to showcase Texana Designs guitar stamp and this is how it turned out.

Stamp: Texana Designs guitar and Stampabilities "Take Time"
Embossing Powder: Ranger Mint Green
Embossing Foil: Ranger Violet
Papers: Green and Black cardstock and Wassau metallic purple
Cuttlebug Allegro folder
And, of course: BLING!

Have a great weekend!

Just got another stamp order (all of them mounted). My hubby's "honey do" list is growing!!!!! He makes all my wooden mounts for me!

Dragonfly Season

Well, I wasn't going to do a card today and let Joyce's new stamps be my posting. However, I saw a tutorial today on Stamp TV about watercolor pencils and blending solution and thought I would give it a try.

Supplies used:

Stamp: Texana Designs dragonfly
Paper: Wassau metallic purple (only seen it at Michael's)
Stampin' Up Watercolor Pencils
Shimmerz December Sky
Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers folder
Sticklers Icicle
Pink bling

My goal is to get the watercoloring a little more vibrant - hopefully practice will improve my technique!!

More JAM'N Stamps on the Way!

By popular demand, we added more of Joyce's stamps and they are being shipped as I write this. Here are some to look forward to! Not the original sizes. They will be posted on Etsy and Texana Designs this weekend!

Good morning! This is a very simple card, but my goal was to show off this beautiful Texana Designs stamp. I love this hummingbird/hibiscus stamp but was having trouble figuring out how best to use it. I really like how this one turned out.

Stamps: Texana Designs hummingbird/hibiscus and happy birthday
Papers: Black and purple cardstock
Embossing Powder: Ranger Candy Pink
Embossing Foil: Ranger Violet
Embellishments: Bling

Lemurs in Love

I realize that Valentine's Day is over, but I just love this Texana Designs stamp and wanted to do a card with it.

Stamp: Texana Designs "Lemurs in Love" and "Congratulations"
Embossing Powder: Ranger Expresso
Shimmerz: Coffee for the log and Angel for the edge of the stamp
Twinkling H2O: Rich Cocoa for the lemurs
Cuttlebug folder: Heart Blocks
Embellishments: Pearl and rhinestone bling

It doesn't really show in the picture, but the edge of the stamp shimmers and the lemur has a bling eye!! I also used white pigment ink and ran it over the Cuttlebug folder before running it through. It gave the card a very light glaze of white on the red.

Got a new stamp account yesterday so I'm off to prepare my order!!

Have a great day!!

Kenny's Senior Scrapbook

I'm not sure I'll get my card of the day made today, but I did get caught up on Kenny's senior scrapbook this weekend. I did not have any pictures of the Austin City Limits Festival and Kenny's girlfriend, Meaghan, brought me a CD of pics on Saturday. Yesterday, I scrapped these pages and I got to use my new chipboard letters with guitars, pianos, and drums on them!!

CUTTLEBUGGING IN NY CENTRAL PARK

About a year ago, I spent several days in NYC with my nephew who is a professional photographer in New York. We spent one day in Central Park and took many pictures. I decided to take two of them and run them through the Cuttlebug. I used the Birds and Swirls folder with the tree picture and the Leafy Branches with the birds picture. I sanded each one. This was really fun to do!

Have a great Sunday!