Happy Birthday Buckaroo

Isn’t he just adorable!!!  This is a D’Amour Allure rubber stamp called Lil’ Cowboy and is available at McMahon Five Designs.  The fun Prima burlap flower is from the store as well.  And I colored the little buckaroo Copics.

That’s it for now.  I don’t have much to say tonight because I’m kind of worried about an area about 15 miles away from my home.  There is a large wildfire in an inhabited area near Eagle, Idaho.  I’ve been watching it on the news for about 2-1/2 hours now.  It’s very sad.  They have reported that only 3 homes have been confirmed burned but I think that’s an old estimate.  People are aware that they live in a fire prone area and have green/defensible areas, thank goodness.  They just now said that 2,500 acres have been burned.  The good news is that no one has been hurt or killed.  Say prayers for everyone, will ya’.

Updated later in the evening.  Four homes were damaged, three were a total loss.  There were no injuries.  Several homes were saved by the firefighting efforts.  There was one case where the fire was heading towards a home and the aircraft dropped fire retardant at the property line and those homeowners only lost a couple of fence posts.  Another, there was a barn on fire and the firefighters were clearing a defensible space WHILE the barn was burning so that the home was not damaged.  The fire is pretty much out but the firefighters will remain all night to put out any hot spots so the fire doesn’t restart.  Thanks so much for your concerns and prayers.

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:
Medium-Copics with a little watercolor; Image-D’Amour Allure from McMahon Five Designs; Sentiment-computer generated; Flowers-Prima; Cuttlebug-Nestabillities; Other from stash-paper, star lace, buttons.

Challenges:
Stamp with Fun-Card for a boy/man
My Time to Craft-Check it out
Friday Sketchers-sketch
Sentimental Sundays-Playful or funny card (with a sentiment)

Now is the Time

While I was working on my plum box this week, I had a lot of other things going on and going through my head.  This was one of them.  I have had this die for awhile but hadn’t had a chance to use it yet so I definitely wanted to give it a try!  Since an uncaged bird is one of the symbols of Brave Girls, I used some of the sentiments from the Melody Ross Brave Girls set from Unity.  Speaking of Melody and Unity, she has designed some other sets that will be unveiled at CHA.  I saw a couple of them on Facebook and I’ll need to save my pennies so I can get them all when they come out!  There is even a set with cowboy boots!  Melody collects cowboy boots; she says they make her brave!

So that’s my card for Monday morning!  Next, I’ll be working on my McMahon Five Designs project for Wednesday but I’ll probably have more to share before then!  After that, I will be working on something that I wasn’t able to finish at Brave Girls Camp.  It will be one of those projects that you work on for a little while and then wait for it to dry, and work on and wait, and work on and wait….  You never know what I’ll be coming up with in the meantime! 

I hope you have a great Monday!  I put a Will Rogers quote on my Facebook today that I thought I would share here:

“If you want to be successful, it is just this simple:
Know what you're doing. Love what you're doing. And believe in what you're doing.”

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:
Medium-acrylic paint, Copics, Distress Inks; Sentiment-Unity; Paper-Tim Holtz; Cuttlebug-Tim Holtz die; Other from stash-buttons, flat back pearls colored with Copics.

Challenges:
Created by Hand--Looking in…looking out and use dies
Design Dollies--Inspiration--Vintage movie (The Bird Man from Alcatraz)
Etsy Inspired--
Scrap the Art-- (colors)

Grungy Roses

I’ve been dying to try the grungy roses that Tim Holtz made for his 12 Tags of Christmas but just never got around to it…until this week.  My friend, Linda, brought a cigar box over when we had our stamping party so I decided to make a box for my sister.  She has redone her bedroom in plum colors (which I love) so I wanted to  make something to put her favorite jewelry pieces in.  She does so much for me so it’s just a bit of a thank you gift and a card to go with it.

I used a lot of Mod Podge on everything.  I colored the grunge paper roses with acrylic paints and then Mod Podge.  I wanted to give them kind of a porcelain look but I’m not sure I achieved it.  I added some Vintaj hardware to the corners and some wooden feet.  I painted some pieces from the stamp and then painted a couple of coats of Mod Podge on them.  I attached them to the box with some wire wrapped around a paint brush so they are kind of springy.  I sprayed the whole thing with a clear spray paint to seal it.  I left the inside natural.  I sure hope my sister likes it!!!

By the way, I LOVE the grunge paper roses and will be making a whole lot more of them!!!  They’re a little time consuming but I think they’ll get easier with practice.

That’s it for tonight!  I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday!

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:  The image is Inkadinkado, the cardstock is Coore’dinations and I made some crinkly seam binding with watercolor and a little bit of glue.

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz-Anything but square
Stamp Something-Flowery

A Brave Girl Welcome

Before I share the first evening at Brave Girls Camp, I want you to know that the descriptions and photos below do not do the Brave Girls experience even close to the justice it deserves. If you take what I have said and shown, then times it by 100, you still won’t even be close. Each one of you should do what you can to come to Idaho for this experience. It is beyond amazing!!!

Melody Ross and her sister, Kathy, really know how to make the women of Brave Girls camp feel welcome. Melody’s husband, Marq, met us at the hotel, gave us each a beautiful welcome bag containing a bag labeled “do not open,” a welcome letter containing a map to McCall, an embellished journal, a bottle of water, and the best part, a couple of delicious chocolate chip cookies! They loaded all our baggage into a trailer and shuttled us to McCall, Idaho.

As the bus took us to a park at lake edge, I was kind of wondering what was going on. When we all climbed out of the bus, Melody drove up with her sparkling smile and wearing her butterfly cowboy boots (I was kinda’ wondering where her hat was. She always has a hat on in the photos I have previously seen.) After she stopped to give each lady a hug, she then told us to open our bags. They contained birdseed and a label saying “worries are for the birds”. She instructed us to throw the seed to the birds so we could let our troubles go for the week. For those who were reluctant, we would stop and pick them up on the way back. *giggle* My sister, Rose, was a little reluctant to throw her seed so I had to go talk her into it! (She told me she wanted to go back that night when we went to bed!) I’m pretty sure she was ready to leave them for the birds by Thursday though!

We drove back though town and towards the cabin. When the shuttle slowed down to stop… this is what we saw! A line of warm, beautiful women waiting for our arrival!!! They each gave each lady on the bus a welcoming embrace. Next, the beautiful cabin… reminding us that we were safe. If that wasn’t enough… we walked into this magical scene! Twinkling lights, lime green, photos and Melody’s artwork surrounded us! Everything was so amazing. No detail was left out. They even adorned our drinking glasses.

We sat and chatted for awhile as the staff (and some of the loveliest ladies on earth) finished preparing our dinner. While we were eating our dinner, Melody and Kathy’s sons carried our bags up to the hallway outside our room and after dinner we were invited go upstairs to get comfortable for dessert and the first of our nightly meetings. And once again, a beautiful welcome to our room! They left us a name card, a Brave Girls sweatshirt and apron and some ear plugs in case we had some problems with noise. I have to say that I was so exhausted every night that noise was not a problem.

We went back downstairs for Crème Brule and a visit around the red rug. Melody instructed us that the red rug was a safe zone. Anything could be said there and would always stay private between the ladies in the circle. (I think that it’s kinda like client/attorney privilege in that it can’t be used in court *giggle*). She then asked us to introduce ourselves and tell everyone what we wanted to get out of Brave Girls camp. It was what was to be the first beautiful night of sharing!

Right from the beginning I knew that this was going to be a wonderful week. Melody and Kathy reassured us that we were there for healing, rebuilding and art and that they would take care of EVERYTHING else for us. We felt safe and pampered from the minute we entered the cabin. Melody and the staff went to bed with instructions that we could stay up as late as we wanted but I think everybody else went to bed too so they would be well rested for the next day. Melody wouldn’t show us the art room until the next morning and I couldn’t wait to see it! For the final photo, I wanted to share a picture of Melody’s amazing mother, Myrna Jean, Rose and me before going to bed that evening.

Now are you all a little jealous! Don’t ya know that’s why I shared! Just kidding, I really do wish that each of you could have been there as well.

I’ve been playing in my studio on a couple of things but don’t really like how it turned out. I’m going to keep working on that one but hopefully I’ll have something else to share soon!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Beautiful Arabella

One of the reasons I was so excited to design for McMahon Five Designs was because of the beautiful line of D’Amour Allure stamps.  They have so many beautiful vintage images and Arabella is no exception. She is such a beautiful image to work with.  I used some other things from the store—the beautiful I’m Yours design paper is from Fancy Pants and the I used some Prima lace as well.  I cut out some old book paper with the Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Florals die and then sprayed them with a homemade mist that I made from distress ink and Perfect Pearls.

Sue has so many beautiful things in the store; you’ll definitely want to go take a look at McMahon Five Designs. 

Are you signed up for the newsletter.  If not, you don’t know if your the winner of the contest!  Were you one of the ladies that found me?  Check out the McMahon Five blog to see if you won!!!

I hope you have a great hump day!  Later today I will be telling you a little about our arrival at Brave Girl camp.  It was nothing short of magical!

Blessings,

Christine

I’m on the Mend

Each day at Brave Girl Camp, Melody would share some of the trials in her life with the group and send us off with some suggestions for creating art. On the first day, she gave us a list of “truths” and had us think of a “truth teller.” A truth teller can be anyone you want, a higher being, a close friend/relative whether in this world or not. You don’t actually go talk to them about the truth (unless you want to) but you think of what that person would honestly tell you! I’m not going to share who my truth teller is, it’s very personal.

Over the next few days, I will share some of the artwork that I did, and will be doing, to learn and work through my truths. She also provided a couple of chipboard books for us to use on our journey. The first one was to be used for our truth book. Another thing in our folder was a list of “Dear Christine” statements typed out to use in our truth book.

On the first day, I sat down and read through the first page of truths that Melody had provided, cutting out a few that had meaning to me. As I was putting the pages back into my folder, I noticed the top truth on the second page and new that would be the one I would use to create my first truth card. They had everything that we need to use on our creations. Of course all of you know that I love everything from the mid-century and these beautiful vintage sewing items drew me in.

Dear Christine: It is worth the work to mend it and it is absolutely possible…work towards it, today.

(I’m not really going to get into each of the truths with you. It is very personal and some of you may or may not understand the process. If you would like more about the process, please email me (you can find my email in my profile). As Melody and Kathy told us at camp, they are trying to change the world one Brave Girl at a time. So let’s spread the truth and make even more Brave Girls. It was an experience that has changed my life and I will never forget.)

I added some hook and eyes, faux stitching, fluffy flower made from pattern paper, a dictionary definition of mend, MS punch butterflies, Papertrey Ink buttons, a piece of lace sprayed with Glimmer Mist (they had dozens of bottles!) and some GCD Melody Ross word strips. I love word strips to fill in little areas that seem to need a little something!

Thanks for looking at my Brave Girl artwork. I’ll share more later.

Blessings,

Christine

I’m a Brave Girl

(I wish I would have thought to have a photo taken with Melody before the last morning when I was tired and had on no makeup!!!)

I’m home from Brave Girl Camp feeling wonderful! I’m not going to talk about it much yet; I’m just not ready to put all the feelings into words yet. I do have to say that Melody Ross is an AMAZING woman! She and her sister, as well as their families, have put together a magical experience here in the mountains of Idaho and I was so lucky to have been able to attend. In the next few days, I’ll put together a photo display for you here on the blog. I really want to share some of the magic with you.

In the mean time, I’ll be making a new McMahon Five Designs project to share with you on Wednesday. Also, I didn’t get as much finished at Brave Girls as I wish I would have but I will be sharing those in the next few days as well as doing and finishing up some other things that I didn’t have time for. I’m quite a lot slower than the other ladies but as we learned at camp, there is no right or wrong way when making art, just your way! If you like it, it’s perfect!!!

I’ll se you later in the week! I hope you all have a great Monday!!!

Blessings,

Christine

McMahon Peonies

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers so when I saw this beautiful McMahon Five Designs digi (Peony Floating in Glass), I new I had to color it. And did I ever color it, 4 times! I colored them with my Copics and then did some layering with silicone glue. I applied glossy accents to the beautiful bowl the peony is floating in. This image cries for layers. I added some rhinestones that I colored with Copics to the corners of the Basic Grey Olivia paper. The peony is layered onto a piece of Making Memories paper that was sitting on my desk that I cut out with Nestabillities. I noticed that it was a perfect match!

Right now, I’m in the beautiful city of McCall, Idaho, at Brave Girls Camp. I can’t wait to share my experiences!

Blessings,

Christine

A Week Late but Not a Dollar Short

Do you remember me telling you that I would post pictures of our trip to Ogden to see the horses on the 4th of July?  I wanted to make sure that I had everything done for Brave Girls camp before I started editing the photos.  All I have left to do now, is to figure out what I want to where and pack.  Yay!!

First off, I took the photos of this horse just for Stef, you know, Glitterbabe!  She has bling incorporated in her mane.  And look at those kicks!!!

I said that I was going to show you a photo of me on a flag horse.  They had several horses with flags but this rodeo one was my fave.  The horses were a little to big to crawl up on though.  When I lived in Nebraska, a rodeo in town (or even close by) was always a must see, so this was a favorite horse!  Although it didn’t have any Wrangler cowboy butts.

This, of course, was another fave!  Trisha is pointing to her favorite, Reese's Peanut Butter cups… and Alice’s fave Twizzlers.  Rose took a photo of me pointing at my fave Hershey chocolate bar but it’s still in her camera!

I couldn’t resist a photo of this ice cream… Spumoni Pony.

And how about this beautiful American Paint horse.  It took me a minute to realize what image the horses spots formed.  Do you see it?  See Alaska on his neck, Hawaii on his front leg and the US Virgin Islands on the back leg.  I think Trisha was trying to crawl underneath!

This was one of my very favorite.  Don’t you just love all those flowers!!!  Rose and Trisha are trying to hold him down for me.  Speaking of him, Rose pointed out that there were girl and boy horses.  I don’t know if I would have really noticed except… all of the horses that were raring up, were boys.  I took a side picture so you can use your imagination!  This was my favorite horse.  The photo doesn’t do it justice but it’s an impressionistic painting of a Utah mountain scene.  You can see the snowy mountain under his shoulder with the pine trees under that and on his bum.  It was beautiful and definitely the most artistic!

They have a few fun statues around Ogden as well.  This little guy, who had dropped the ice cream off his cone, was sitting outside an ice cream shop but it was closed so we didn’t get any ice cream!

  And I couldn’t resist taking a picture of my family on the bench next to these little kids.

There were so many beautiful horses  but these were my favorites!  I hope you enjoyed.

I have a McMahon Five Designs post scheduled for Wednesday but you won’t be hearing from me again until Sunday!  I know you won’t be having as good of a week that I will be having at Brave Girls camp, but I do hope that you have a good one!!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Elisabeth Bell Candy

She’s at it again!  Elisabeth Bell is giving away several stamp sets that she has done for Whiff of Joy, SCACD, and Belles and Whistles.  That’s a total of 36 stamps!  Head over to Elisabeth Bell’s blog to sign up for yourself!

Blessings,

Christine

Lavender Fields Forever

What a wonderful day I had!  First of all, my sister and I went to the Lavender Festival!  I heard about it on the news last year but it had already ended.  So this year, I made a point to find out about it ahead of time and attend.  The lavender fields surround the farm house.  Craft and a few food stands were set up on the lawn.  After wandering the grounds and purchasing a few plants for my own garden, my sister and I wandered the field to cut a bunch of lavender to take home.  It was a hot day (95 degrees when we left at about 1:00 pm) but there was plenty of shade!

We then took a short class about making a lavender sachet wand.  I left the one I made in the class in my sister’s car for her to use as an air freshener and then made a few when I got home.  They are very simple to make so I’ll show a picture of the before and after so maybe those of you with lavender plants of your own might be able to make some.  Bunch an odd number of stems (I used 11) together and tie a ribbon around the base of the blossoms and then gently bend each stem down over the ribbon in a spoke fashion.  You must do this when the lavender is freshly picked or the stems will break.  This is the bunch on the right in the photo.  I did this to several as soon as I got home so I could weave more wands.

Then you simply weave the ribbon through the stems, over and under, with the blossoms on the inside.  The first round is kind of hard but it gets easier as you go down the stems.  Once I had the blossoms covered, I tied the ribbon off in a bow.  The lavender will dry inside the ribbon and the scent will last for a couple of years. 

I made a few and found that the beautiful scent of lavender becomes quite pungent when inhaled in large doses!!!  After a couple of wands, I had to go in the bedroom and lay down because I got quite nauseated!  I’ll be doing a couple at a time now until I finish the rest!

I needed to stop playing anyway because I was going to dinner at a friends house.  I haven’t seen Shelley for quite some time; I used to work with her and I babysat her daughter (Jenna) and their cousins one morning a week for a couple of years after I left work.  A couple of other ladies and Shelley’s sister, Kristen, joined us!  Kristen brought her daughter, Valerie, and after dinner, Jenna and Valerie performed a couple of numbers for us!  They are a couple of cuties!!!  Kristen watched Jenna and her own two children for about the first four years before they started preschool and Kristen moved across town.  Since Valerie and Jenna spent so much time together, they are very close and are more like sisters than cousins.  I just love these two little girls!!!  I can’t forget to mention Amanda, Valerie’s sister, but she was at a campout this weekend.

After dinner and the show, Shelley’s husband kept the kids entertained while the ladies took some adult time to chat!  It was the so much fun!  Sometimes I really miss work especially when I think about the friendships I formed while I was there!  Sorry, I didn’t think to take pictures of the ladies.

Thanks for coming by to hear about my day!  I hope you had an equally nice day as well!

Blessings,

Christine

OMGosh! Jodi’s Birthday Candy

Jodi, who was a fellow Flutterby DT member, is having some amazing birthday candy!!!  You won’t want to miss out on this one!!!  She has five different packages to give away!

I won’t be posting much this week.  I have SO much to do to get ready for Brave Girls Camp.  I’m going to try to get some photos of my trip to Utah for the 4th and post them.

I need to make a tote bag and alter an apron.  My sis and I are doing this together but separate.  We bought the same aprons, I made totes alike and we are using the same fabric to alter them.  It will be fun to see what each of us come up with.

I’m making a McMahon Five Designs card to share with you next week while I’m gone and then getting ready for camp.  Can you tell, I’m SOOOO excited!

Blessings,

Christine

Feminine Perfection

This was the first digi that I requested as part of the McMahon Five Designs design team.  I knew that I would love making Feminine Perfection into a beautiful (if I do say so myself) shabby chic card.  And when I saw the Color Throwdown 100th challenge all over blogland today, I knew that this was the perfect image to play with.  Have I told you that I {heart} McMahon Five Designs’ vintage images?  Well, I do.

Don’t forget that McMahon Five Designs also has a contest going on.  Head on over to the blog to see all the details!  You won’t be disappointed; that’s all I can say!

Now back to the Color Throwdown challenge.  They’ve got like’a’million (that is all one word ya’ know) prizes this week so you’ll definitely want to check it out here.  But, then again, please don’t participate because then I’ll have a better chance of winning one of the great prizes!!!

That’s it for now!  I’m really busy getting ready for Brave Girls Camp.  It’s less than a week away and I can’t wait!!!  I’ve talked to several of the ladies via email already and am sooo excited to meet everyone.  Next week this time I’ll be basking in the beauty of McCall, Idaho, enjoying some creative time with some wonderful ladies from around the country!

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:
Medium-watercolor, Twinkling H2Os; Image-McMahon Five Designs Feminine Perfection; Paper-October Afternoon; Punch-EK Success; Ribbon-May Arts; Buttons-Papertrey Ink; Cuttlebug-Nestabillities; Liquid Pearls; Additional from stash-twine, lace dyed with Twinkling H2Os.

Another McMahon Five Design Card!

I’m so happy to be on the McMahon Design team because the images are so sweet!  Sue drew this sweet image after reading bible stories to her children. I will be using these sweet images for cards for my sisters Sunday school class.  These images were released this weekend.  I think this one is just as sweet!

Did you know that McMahon Five is having a contest this weekend?  If you subscribe to their newsletter, you would know!  If you missed it you can find the details on the M5D blog.  You know, I didn’t even know they had a blog until I was on the DT.

@@@@@@@@@************************
@@@@@@@@@
@@@@@@@@@************************
@@@@@@@@@
*********************************

*********************************

*********************************

 

Are ya’all having a great Independence Day?  I hope so!!!  As we drove through Ogden yesterday, we noticed that they have painted horse statues spread all over downtown so were headed to go see them and get some fun photos!!!  Expect me on horseback of a flag painted horse.  We were on our feet a lot yesterday so I was sore this morning.  I took some pain pills so now I haven’t a care in the world!!!  Especially where pain goes!!!

This evening we’re going to have bbq chicken for dinner along with a ton of fun!!!

I hope you have a good one as well!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Time for the Ball

This is the final card that I made for the McMahon Five Designs digital challenge.  I am so glad that I participated in the challenge because I was asked to be on their design team.  I’m so excited to be able to play with their images.  They have so many of the vintage stamps (both rubber and digi) that I love so much!!!

When I saw The Ball image in the M5D store, I wasn’t sure what the object was in the top left corner.  When I saw it irl, it’s a clock!  So, how many times have you sat (she can’t sit in the beautiful ball gown) looking at the clock wondering where your date is?  As for me, 15 minutes is tops.  After 15 minutes, I leave the house ‘cause I’m not waiting on any guy!!!  As if I’ve had a date recently.  I don’t even remember the last time but I’m okay with that!  I love my life the way it is and men just complicate things! *giggle* 

Come back in a day or two because I have some wonderful new M5D digis to share with you.

I hope your Thursday is a great one!!!

Blessings,

Christine

Deets:
Medium-Twinkling H2os; Image-McMahon Five Designs; Paper-Basic Grey Wisteria; Punch-Martha Stewart; Ribbon-hand dyed seam binding; Flowers-Wild Orchid Crafts hand dyed.

Challenges:
Design Dollies element challenge-ribbon
Sketch Saturday-sketch
Corrosive Challenge-Lots of flowers