Fall Colors

This week's newsletter from Paper Crafter's Library had a challenge for a Fall Thank You card.  Every Monday they send out a challenge, but this is the first time I was inspired (or had the time) to try my hand at making one of their card layouts.  I love the colors of the card, but it was the simplicity that inspired me to make it. Using scraps of paper I have in my stash, I followed the directions given by Tracy in the video and made the following:

Another Friday Afternoon

Well, I've made it to another Friday afternoon not knowing where to begin or what to do. I'm torn between being creative or just sitting back and relaxing before my weekend begins.  I don't know about you, but on Fridays I find it hard to do anything but catching up on some me time.  I find that when one is creative, ones mind tends to wander from project to project (mentally.) When that happens to me, I get this feeling of being overwhelmed and cannot make up my mind about what it is I want to do!

This afternoon was no exception. I started out with some Praise and Worship and Bible Study. This is the easy part because it requires no thought on my part -- being in God's presence has a way of setting the atmosphere and clearing the clutter from my mind. I then prepared dinner for my mom and settled down to watch a show on TV.  It was during this period of rest that I started wondering where to begin and what to do creatively.  I checked my email, saw a few emails I subscribed to with different techniques to try, but frankly, I was still not motivated.  This brought me to writing this post. I think I made up my mind to just let myself relax today and start off tomorrow fresh and with a clear mind.

I won't leave you without something to view, though.  I made the following card on Wednesday, September 26th.  It was my older sister's birthday and I decided (last minute) to bake her cake (we meet for Bible Study on Wednesday evenings at church).  Needless to say, I was stumped for a layout for the card.  I then remembered an email I received from Bird's Cards with a card she'd made.  I loved the simplicity of the card, but more than that, I loved how elegant it looked, so I tried making my own version of this card.  I made this card the old fashioned way -- cutting and pasting.  There was no e-cutter involved, just my paper cutter, scissors, a paper punch, the Cuttlebug, bling, ribbon, and a stamped sentiment. See? Simplicity and elegance.  Enjoy!

Digital Images

Hi there!

Today I decided to showcase one of the many techniques I've been using in making my cards.  One of my favorite things to do is work with graphics.  There is so much you can do with them!  I'm constantly browsing the web in search of artwork/graphics I can use in my business (I think I mentioned before that I'm a VA by profession -- a creative one at that!) as well as for my card making hobby. Anyway, there are so many sites that offer digital stamps for purchase.  One  such site is Mo's Digital Pencil Shop.  I purchased the digi file, Gloria at the Pool, which I used for this card. I used Copic Markers to paint the image, then cut out the image with Spellbinders die and attached the image to the card base. I embellished the card with some bling and Stickles glitter glue.  Gloria seems to be having some fun. I may need to follow suit!

I also purchased this cute wedding file, Wedding Couple.  Copic Markers brought to life the image, and I highlighted it with Stickles glitter glue. I used my Cuttlebug to add dimension to the background layer of the card base, and embellished it with tiny pearls. They make an awesome pair!




I've had this cutie for a while now and finally found the time to use her for a card. I think I purchased the file from Mo's, but can't locate any information on her.  I used Copic Markers to color and Stickles glitter glue to add some dimension to her dress and the bows in her hair.  Using my Cuttlebug, I embossed the background layer to add dimension.

Isn't she adorable?

Busy as a Bee

Phew! I just came off one of the busiest weekends ever! Saturday was busy with Praise and Worship, preparing the seasoning for my meat (in the West Indian/Caribbean culture, we love to season (marinate) our meat/poultry a day in advance of cooking.) I did this by using the food processor to chop up onions, garlic, cilantro, bell peppers, scallions, etc. It saves time in that I just have to spoon the stuff on the meat instead of cutting it all up each time.  I also had some Scotch Bonnet peppers, so I made some pepper sauce! I was sneezing and coughing my way through pepper on Saturday!

Since I seem to be harping on being in the kitchen, here's a card I made for someone who recently graduated from culinary school as a Pastry Chef. I purchased the background digital paper from Scrapbookgraphics.com, specifically Chef's Delight Elements, Chef's Delight Papers, and Chef's Delight Alphas.  I paper pierced most of the elements, but for the alphas I used MTC to print the sentiment, printed it on the paper and cut it out.  Because the theme in my kitchen has always been red, I made a second card just to see how it would look.  Here's that:

Who knows, this might inspire me to go to culinary school and perfect the art of baking, which I love to do.  Just to whet your appetite, here is a scrumptious creation I made a while back, and which my family is always asking me to bake:

TGIF!

It's Friday, you'll! I don't know about you, but I get excited about the weekend.  First off, I get to relax on Fridays after work.  I try not to schedule anything for that day because it's the only free time I have in my weekend.  Why? Well, because I'm usually so busy on Saturdays and Sundays, I don't have time to relax.

My Saturdays start with early morning praise and worship at my church (7:00 am), then it escalates from there (meetings, errands, events, lol.) By the time I get home on Saturday evening, I'm so tired, I just get ready for Sunday and go to bed.  In all of this I have to factor in taking care of my elderly mom, administering medications, etc. No easy feat, mind you!

On Sundays, depending on what week it is, I'm at church from 7:00 am - 1:00 pm. This Sunday is my hectic day -- I sing in the Gospel choir, dance with the liturgical praise dancers, so I'm doing double duty. By the time Sunday evening rolls around, I'm ready to just sit back and relax, literally!

Anyway, here's a card I made a few weeks ago. Thinking of the words from 1 Corinthians 13, I reflect on what it takes to care for an elderly parent: patience, tolerance, and LOTS OF LOVE!!! Without the latter, it becomes very hard to do.   If you're in the same situation I'm facing,I hope it encourages you!

True to My Word

As promised, I'm back today with a new set of photos. Even when I'm not creating, I keep busy just checking out different sites and blogs I follow.  This allows me to keep up with the new trends and techniques making the rounds in the scrapping world.

One of my favorite things is bold and loud color. Anything that is vivid and bright attracts my eyes. Above are the files I cut using Cricut's Walk In My Garden cartridge (the tiny bugs with the three dots).  I cut the ladybugs with the antennas using a Make-The-Cut cut file a member shared with me in the MTC forum.

Anyway, for these cards, I used scraps of paper left over from a the above baby shower project I was helping a friend put together.  One of the cards was a birthday card I made for a friend's foster daughter. Her name is Unique, so I thought I'd make a pun out of the sentiment on the card. I cut this using MTC also. 

This other was for a 70th anniversary card. The inspiration for this  came from here; the third card was for one of my church members who celebrated her centenary on August 27th. The square layers were cut using Spellbinders' Fleur-de-Lis Squares. The sentiment was cut from a file provided to me by Bird's Cards, a site to which I'm subscribed. She has the most interesting cut files and they help when one's in a rush and needs something quick, lol!

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Believe it or not, even though I haven't posted anything to this blog in ages, I have been busy creating. My life has taken a different path since I took over caring for my mother in October 2010. It doesn't leave me with much time to write, and sometimes, I'm too tired to even try. Over the next few weeks, I will try to update my blog with some of the work I have done in the past 2 years, so be patient with me please! Here are a few cards that I've made and didn't have the time to post. Enjoy!

I found the jpeg image for this shoe online and I used MTC (Make-the-Cut) to resize and layer the image. I used the texturize tool in MTC and selected a background of a Cheetah print I had in my clipart library (I think I purchased it from www.mygrafico.com. For this card, I used the Father's Fancy Footworks cut file from LetteringDelights. the military background paper I found through a stock photo company (I can't remember where, lol!) This card was created using a digi file I purchased a while back (again, I don't remember where :-)) and scraps of paper I had accumulated for a while.