Ill Gotten Goods--Day 61

Dzień dobry.  Today is Polish Day.  We have a huge population of Polish immigrants here in our area of NE PA.  So, I thought it fittin' to introduce ya'll to the Polish way of saying good morning.  :)

Today, my "card"  isn't really a card.  It's an altered project and the first one I have ever done of this kind.  I wanted to a little something different for Queen Kat Designs this week.  As I peruse all the wonderful galleries of my fellow design team members, I am amazed at all the beautiful artwork that they produce.  If you have a minute or two, you should check out our blog over at Queen Kat Designs Blog.  There you will find beautiful projects plus links to the design member's blogs.

So, my project today is a 5x7 altered canvas.  I use three different papers from DCWV's new Halloween Paper Stack.  There are some really cool papers in that stack.  I used Mod Podge to add the papers.  I also used Black String for a spiderweb look, purple and cream flowers, rhinestones, a glittery spider and a skeleton hand.  But, the main focus is the cute little image from Catherine Swinford called Ill Gotten Goods.  I used Bic Markers and Sakura Gel Pens to color in the image.  I fussy cut him out and pop dotted him up in the corner.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I can't wait to see what Kierstynne thinks of it.  I may have to buy a frame to put it in so she can display it for Halloween.  That kid is Halloween crazy. :)

Dziękujemy za zatrzymanie pociągu na dziś i niech Bóg was błogosławi.  (Thank you for stopping in today and God bless you.

Day 60

Hallo!  Today we are travelling to Dutch country.  I love those little wooden Dutch shoes.  I wish I had a pair.  They are so dang cute!  I looked for a Dutch word for scrapbooker or crafter, but I couldn't find one.  So the best I could do was the Dutch words  for crafty friends  ..Listig vrienden.   Now on to my card.

This card was made for James, a little three year old boy who is suffering from tumors on his spine.  He loves pirates so when I found this free image online, I just knew it was the card for James.  I printed them out and colored them with colored pencils and OMS.  As you can tell, this is my favorite coloring medium.  I have a whole set of Spectrum Noir pens, which you can now buy at AC Moore, but I am not a pro at those yet.  I fussy cut the cannonballs, barrel, crate, and pirate out and used pop dots to add depth.  I matted the image on a turquoise mat and then matted the whole thing on a grey card base.  I hand wrote the sentiment.  I had alot of fun with this one.  I love dragons and this one was right up my alley.

Vaarwel and dank u for stopping by today.  God bless

Day 59

Buongiorno!  Today our hello is from Italy.  I have heard this word and quite a few others alot considering that my husband's father's family is Italian.  Our annual Italian Festival is coming up in a few weeks and I can't wait.  Talk about good food...Yummy!!

Well, on to the reason you stopped in today.  A new card.  So here it is.  This is Liberty Riley.  I did a Round Robin swap over on SCS and this is one of the images I picked.  I love Riley Moose.  He is so dang cute.  This card was done for a challenge over on the Outlawz for Sunday's CAS (clean and simple)  I printed out the sentiment from my computer and matted it on strips of red to resemble a flag.  The background paper is part of the blue stars part of a flag.  I colored Liberty Riley with colored pencils and OMS then cut him out with Nestabilities.  I matted him on a red oval cut from Nestabilities and a plain white oval also cut from Nestabilities.  I shaded the actual image with a little yellow to simulate a glow.  I also used pop dots to give Mr. Liberty some dimension.

I hope you guys like Mr. Liberty as much as I do.  Ciao! and God bless.

Day 58

Hello peeps.  Today we are visiting Greece for our greeting. Υ i`a sas  This is the traditional Greek way of saying hello.  Yeah, I know I have lost my mind, but it's pretty interesting right?  Now you can fascinate someone with a useless fact for the day..:)

Today's card is a card that I made to give to my grandma who is turning 89 years young today.  She loves the color red and butterflies are special to our family because they are the mascot for LUPUS.  My Grandma Kitty is permanently confined to a Jazzy chair because she has Vascular Disease, which affects the veins and arteries in your body, usually in your extremities.  She lost her right leg in 2002 and at her age, a fake one wasn't possible.  You should see that woman.  She amazes me.  She still cleans her own house, cooks her own meals, does her own laundry.  She has a special tool that she uses to reach stuff and a lift to help her in and out of bed.  She is always on the go and if you say, "Hey wanna go to WalMart?"  She's out the door and in the van before you can grab your purse.  She has even traveled out to New Mexico and Texas in her van.  She's an inspiration to me.  My father lives with her just to make sure she isn't alone, but she is very independent.

So, the butterfly stamp is from Gina K Designs and is from the set called Spring Mix.  The Grandma stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment is Stampin' Up.  Yes I love to combine stamps from different companies.  I stamped the butterfly in black then twice in red.  I fussy cut out the red ones and popped them up on pop dots.  I matted both sentiments on red card stock and the DP is from my stash.  I put the whole thing on a mat of red then a black card base.  I sure hope she likes it. :)

Thanks for stopping by today for your foreign language lesson and to check out my latest card. Giasou and have a blessed day. 

Day 57

Hola friends.  I hope you are all having a great day.  I am just sitting here trying to catch up on my blogging.  I am only 3 weeks behind...:(  I don't know how some of these ladies and gentlemen keep up with their blogs daily.  I sure can't.

So, this little card I made from a coloring page.  I resized it and colored it with colored pencils and OMS.  I didn't think it needed any embellies because the picture itself was so busy.  Just a few letter stickers and our little cat is Chillaxin'.  Everything came from my stash.  I am still keeping to my no buying deal.  Well, except for two tape runners.  I gotta have adhesive to create right??

Well, I hope you all have a great day, or night depending on what time you are checking out my blog.  Adios amigos.  God bless!

Day 56

Bonjour mon ami!  I told you I was going to change things up a little..hehehe.  Today I have a cute card that I made for Teapot Tuesday over on Splitcoast Stampers.  It is for a little boy named Tyler.  He has been pretty sick and we are trying to cheer him up.  So my little detective is searching for ways to make Tyler smile.  If you want to read more about Tyler, click HERE.

I used colored pencils and OMS to color in this image, which again is a free image from daily freebies.  The DP is from my stash.  I used Glossy Accents on the magnifying glass to make it shine.  I printed out the sentiment from my computer and mounted both the sentiment and image on a beautiful shade of dark teal.  The card base is a chocolate brown.

So, I thank you for stopping by again to check out my work.  You have no idea how much I appreciate it.  Au revior! and God bless.

Day 55

Happy Day 55 to all my crafty friends.  It's amazing that I am running out of greetings here after 55 days.  Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I have NEVER run out of words..lol.  But, alas, I am going to have to start greeting you guys with greetings in foreign languages just to shake things up. :)

This card was a very quick and easy card.  The image was one that I received in a swap and I mounted it on light lavender card stock.  I tied a purple piece of ribbon around the bottom.  I used my Fiskar's Scallop Punch on the bottom of the back ground DP.  I mounted the entire thing on a white card base.  Very simple and easy.

I thank you for stopping by today.  Have a great day!  Shalom!

Day 54

Hi there!  It's Day 54 and I am still plugging away at this 100 in 100 challenge.  I am trying my best to use up my stash, but I have to tell you, it's not going anywhere fast.

This card is was done for the Twisted Thursday Challenge over on The Outlawz.  The challenge for Thursday is always Anything Goes, but with a twist.  This time it was Best Friends.  I found this cute little image on http://www.freedigitalstamps.blogspot.com/.  If you go to this blog daily, there is always a list of great free digis.  I need to go through my digis and rename them with the designer so I will know exactly who made it.  But, I thought these little girls made cute besties.  Everything I used came from my stash so I am not sure of companies.

Thanks for stopping in today and I pray you have a blessed day.

Day 53

Hello my crafty friends.  How is everyone today?  We have finished our 2nd day of homeschool and things are going great.  Kierstynne is breezing through already.  Hopefully it will get a little more challenging for her.  If not, we are going to be moving into 4th grade LA and Math before January.

Today's card was done for the Wednesday's Sketch Challenge over on The Outlawz .  If you haven't had a chance to check out their site, I highly recommend it.  They have a different challenge for everyday of the week.  I love them!!  I used a set of rub ons that I have had for a few years now.  It's CAS and No stamping..  I love this little angel..she is so cute.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I truly appreciate it.  Oh, and just FYI, we are only 6 people away from my blog giveaway.  Let's get those 6 people so I can give away something..:)  God bless!

Day 52

Boy am I behind in my blogging.  I have been super busy and had a sick child, so I have gotten over a week behind in my posting.  I am still plugging along with my 100 Day Challenge.  I have quite a few cards to post, so keep checking back for new projects.

The project I am posting today is not a card.  It's a 5x7 "frameable" wall art.  I decided to participate in this swap with Marilyn over on SCS because I wanted to try something different.  Well, it was definitely different and had me stumped.  I looked for inspiration all over SCS and some of the blogs that I regularly follow.  I finally just threw caution to the wind, picked out some papers that I liked, printed off the verse and went from there.  I hope my assigned partner likes it.  I know I do.  So, here's what I came up with....

I think it turned out rather well.  I added some flowers and a charm that I had laying around waiting for just the right project.  It's a heart, a cross and an angel wing.  I think it fits really nicely on this project.

Thanks, Marilyn, for the chance to think outside the box.  Thanks everyone for stopping in today and God bless.

Day 51--Gargoyle #2

Hello my crafty friends.  I hope you are all enjoying your day.  Today I have a card to share with you using a stamp from Queen Kat Designs, where as most of you know, I am on their Design Team.  What a thrill this ride has been.  It has taken me out of my comfort zone by forcing me to use stamps that I normally wouldn't even think of using.  It has been fun to see where my ideas take me.  I haven't always been extremely happy with the finished products, but I am proud of the fact that I have tried to think outside the box.

That is exactly what I have done with this card.  It is wwwaaayyy outside my normal creative box.    This stamp is from Terra Bidlespacher and is called Gargoyle.  I love this little stamp.  She is my first gargoyle and I don't see her being my last. For me, working with these images are rather hard.  I usually do cute or sweet cards, even my masculine cards could be considered cute.  So, to try and go Goth, Emo, or just plain out there is a challenge.  But, I have enjoyed stretching my creative ability.  So, without further ado, here she is..

I call this one "Freak".  I used glitter pens to color her in.  I used a Tiki Hut Tan BIC marker to color her skin but it came out looking kinda greenish.  I hand drew the wall background and then added some graffiti to it.  I actually just kept adding embellishments until I thought it looked ok.  I added a stick pen to the big flower and some metallic nail heads to the corners.  Glossy Accents highlight the wall.  I think she turned out pretty "cute"..lol

Thanks for stopping in today.  And don't forget about the October 13 Days of Halloween blog hop over on QKD.  God bless you.


Stamp: Gargoyle by Terra Bidlespacher
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; DI Vintage Photo, Broken China, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade
Coloring Medium: Sakura Glitter Pens; BIC Markers; Spectrum Noir Pens
CS: my stash
Embellishments: my stash
Adhesives: ATG; Pop dots

Day 50

Well folks, I have made it to the halfway point in my 100 Day Challenge.  It's been fun and I am looking forward to the next 50 days.

I promised you guys a special wowza card for today because it's the halfway point.  This card was made for the SCS's Teapot Tuesday's Challenge.  Every week we receive a challenge and if we decide to, we can mail it out to the destination station assigned for that week.  Well, this card's destination station was a young lady named Laura, who unfortunately, was hit by a train last November.  She is doing much better, but still has a long way to go.  She is a walking miracle because not many people who get hit by a train live to tell their story.  God must have an amazing plan for Laura.  She is one special lady.  She is the typical young lady in that she loves clothes, shoes, makeup, and is a romantic at heart.  So, with that in mind, I made this card...

Sorry for the picture quality.  I know it's a little dark.  The image is from a free site for digi stamps.  I decided to go vintage with this image and cinematic by only coloring in the people.  For some reason my printer placed white lines across the image all the way down.  I tried printing it again, and it did the same thing, so I got creative and using my trimmer, I cut the image on each line, placed them with a very small space apart on hot pink card stock to match the color of the dress.I then matted the whole thing on a piece of black card stock.  I matted that on a piece of silver card stock and the card base is a black glittery card stock.  I added a strip of off white lace with pearls, three pearl sprays and a rose.  I sure hope Laura likes it.

Thanks for stopping in today and please keep Laura in your prayers.  She still has a long way to go.  God bless you.

Stamp: free digi

Ink: Inkjet printer

Coloring Medium: Colored Pencils; OMS

CS: Colorbok

Embellishments: AC Moore

Adhesives: ATG; Pop dots; Hot Glue Gun

Blog Candy

Howdy!  Hope everyone is enjoying their day.  It's raining and dreary here.  Good day if you are a duck.

So, I have been thinking of a way to get more followers on my blog.  I am going have a giveaway.  Everyone loves free stuff right?  So, I have decided that when I hit 35 followers, I am going to have a mystery prize box up for winning.  If you are already a follower, thank you so much and your name will be entered as well. So, here's the deal...In order to be entered to win the Mystery Prize Box, you must Follow Me..and leave a comment on this post about what your favorite technique is for making cards.  I can't wait to read all the comments.  So, if you have some friends whom you think would be interested in my blog, tell them to stop by, sign up and leave a comment.  As soon as I hit 35, I will use Random.org and pick a name.   I will be posting sneak peaks of some of the things that could be in the box.  Keep a look out for them.

Hope you all have a great day and God bless.

Day 49

Hello crafty friends.  Can you believe it?  Tomorrow is the half way point in my no spending, using my stash 100 in 100 days challenge.  It hasn't seemed that long.  I have a special card for tomorrow's post with a very special reason why that card was created.

Today's card is for the Creative Freebie Challenge over on The Outlawz.  The stamp was designed by Anne Fenton.  She is an amazing artist and designs some wonderful digi stamps.  Her partner is Sandra Huggett.  If you haven't already checked out this site, you are definitely missing out.

To design this card, I printed out the digi after sizing it to 3.5x5.  I used colored pencils and OMS as my medium.  I matted it on some sunny yellow cardstock with just a very small border.  The DP is from my stash.  I added a strip of blue card stock that matched the blue in the background paper.  I added some light blue seam binding ribbon to the middle.  The little deer and squirrel are from a stamp set by Rubber Stampede that my MIL found at a yardsale for 50 cents.  Yep that's right, 50 cents.  I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them in with colored pencils.  I fussy cut them out and added them with pop dots.  The sentiment is from a GinaK Designs stamp set called Eclectic Summer Sayings.  I used pop dots on the sentiment and matted the whole thing on Whisper White Card Stock from Stampin' Up.

Thanks for stopping by today to check out my latest creation.  God bless you.

Mom's Visit

Now that I have logged all my card for the 100 in 100 Challenge, I can post about my wonderful visit with my mother.  My mom, Joan, lives in Virginia, which is where I grew up.  Every year she comes to stay with me for 2 to 3 weeks.  I love the time she spends here with me and my family.  I so wish I could get her to move up here with us, but I understand her wanting her independence.  

So my inlaws went down to VA to pick up my best friend's son to come stay with them for a while and swung by and picked up my mom.  She used to ride the bus up, but with two broken hips and COPD, it's gotten too hard for her to do that.  She and my husband, who went with his parents, arrived here about 5:30 am on July 15th.  I was so excited to see her.  We stayed up yapping for a couple of hours then we hit the sack for some much needed sleep.  (I had stayed up until they came in)

We didn't really do a whole lot, but just getting to spend the time together was a blessing.  My mom and I didn't always get along.  Part of it was because we are so much alike.  Part of it came from the childhood I had. (Lots of drama)  But now, we are thick a thieves and love spending the time together.  We sit and play Boggle, Scrabble, and Yatzee.  I don't have anyone to play games with because my husband isn't a game player and my daughter is still to young for the word games.  Now that mom is back home, my Boggle and Scrabble games won't see the light of day for another year. :)

I did take her to the new Chinese Buffet that just opened here in Pittston.  It was good and she enjoyed it.  We went to church and helped out with the VBS.  She really enjoyed that.  I always handle the snack part of VBS so she helped me out.

We had a bad storm here a week before she left and we lost our power and phone.  Boy was it hot!  No A/C drove me nuts.  I just can't handle the heat.  And my mom, who usually freezes all the time when she's here, even said she was hot.  Thank God the power came back on about 30 hours later.  We still don't have a phone and we are going on 2 weeks.  The storm blew out the transformer and we are still waiting for it to be replaced.

My cousin Mike, who lives down in Gettysburg, came up to visit us and have dinner.  I made a pot of chili, jalapeno cornbread and brownies.  It was so good to see him.  My mom was surprised because I didn't tell her he was coming.

On Friday the 3rd, I had to take her home.  I rented a car, a 2012 Chevy Malibu, and let me tell you, if I ever decide to go back to driving a car, it will be one of those.  It was such a great car.  Smooth driving, comfortable riding, and great on gas.  We got to VA about 12:30 Friday night/ Saturday morning.  We were oh so tired.

The next morning we went to Hardee's for breakfast.  We do not have them here in PA and they have the best biscuits ever!  They make their biscuits fresh from scratch every morning and the sausage gravy is fantastic.  If you have never been to Hardee's and you have one where you live..GO!!  It will be so worth it. When we left Hardee's we went by my brother, Jerry's, house so I could meet his new girlfriend.  He was working, but surprised us with a quick visit.  His boss let him take a break so he could run by the house and see me for a few.  It was nice to see him.

Saturday afternoon we went to my great aunt's 89th birthday party.  It was great to see cousins and other family that I have't seen in years.  And having a truly southern meal was a treat too!!  Those southern women can whip up a meal like nothing and they love doing it.  We went to church with my mom.  I love her church. It's the The ROC and Pastor G rocks.  He has a powerful testimony.  I really like going when I am down and Kierstynne loves the children's church too.

Sunday morning my Uncle Len came over for a quick visit.  We call him Uncle Frog, which is a nicknamed stemming from his childhood.  He's my mom's brother and they are very close.  That is probably the main reason she won't move here with me.  She does't want to leave him alone.  I totally understand.  We left my mom's and rode to Powhatan to visit with my 89 year old grandma, who raised me, and my dad.  We had a really nice visit.   Dad bought KFC for dinner and it was fantastic.  I don't get to go out to eat alot because our family is a one income family and it doesn't always leave alot of money for that.  So it was nice to get treated out.

We left there about 7:30pm to head home.  My cousin, Mike, gave me directions to come home a different way.  I stayed at his house that night and the way he brought m home saved me 100 miles and almost 2 hours.  I do believe I will be traveling his way instead of the normal way I have taken for 13 years.

So, that is a quick synopsis of my vacation with my mom.  I thank God that we had a great time and safe travels.