Yucky Yesterday!

Yesterday was a kinda yucky day!  It all started when my Keurig died!  I fiddled with it for about 30 minutes hoping I could revive it, but no such luck!  To make matters worse, my fitbit wouldn't sync either!  Nothing major, but just enough to make the beginning of the day feel all out of kilter.  

It was POURING DOWN at about 3:00 when I should have been leaving for my last Copic class of the year.  Turned out to be a God thing that I stayed home later than usual, because around 4:00 my husband called, stranded in the rain in a truck full of groceries that had died in the middle of the street next to Publix.  We both got drenched moving everything from the truck to my car...but the tow truck came, and I real quick picked up the hubs and brought him home, then drove in the still pouring rain to Scrappies in  Palatka.  I found out later that there were tornado warnings in that direction!  It was BAD!

Thankfully, the rest of the evening was relaxing and relatively uneventful!  It is so fun to be with the girls and play with cute stamps!  We tried something different this time...we made one 4 x 6 and four 3 x 4 ATC-style cards for their Project Life pages.   We used Paper Smooches' set, Squeaky Clean, which has such adorable images and funny, punny sentiments.  Their favorite was the one that goes with the vacuum, which certainly described my day!  ;)

These little "scene" cards were lots of fun to design, especially with these bright, happy colors!  The bold blues we used were a little bit of a challenge  to blend since the lightest marker works more like a bleach pen, but everyone loved the results and had a good time.

Having just had our great room tiled, and still shopping for ideas for our bathroom remodel, I couldn't help but add little details like window sills, tiled floors, and multi-colored "carpet/etc" to these!  Makes me giggle!  And now, I *so* need to get out my own feather duster...the tile guys had to undercut our baseboards, so there is dust everywhere!

I started this morning with a cup of coffee made with our "hurricane emergency" French press!  I am happy to say, it has been a very pleasant morning so far!  We are planning to shop for a new coffee maker and hopefully also pick up the truck from the shop before the day is over!

I hope you have a fabulous Tuesday!

It's finally here!

Fall is finally really here!  It officially arrived on Saturday, but this morning northeast Floridians awoke to a crisp 57 degrees!  So lovely! The skies are a high bright blue, and we're planning to spend at least a little time enjoying the cooler temps and sunshine!

My card for today is a celebration of harvest time and the symbols of Fall, using the Our Craft Lounge stamp set, Bountiful Harvest.  I made it for the Copic class I'll be teaching tomorrow at Scrappies in Palatka.  If you're a local, I'd love to see you there!

Girls just wanna have fun!

Hi friends!  Happy weekend!  Hope you're having a good one!  

I took a few days off from blogging to recover from our travels and to spend time with my husband for his remaining days off from work.  Monday will be back to work for him, although I'll be starting back today because I've got several deadlines looming!

If you're a local, I hope you'll check out the Copic class I'm teaching Monday evening at Scrappies in Palatka.  We'll be coloring these fun Mo Manning girls on kraft card stock.  This is a long, tall card with just a little bit of frilliness and bling to make it just girlie enough!  I would love if you'd join me!

What a weekend!

The weekend is drawing to a close...it was a weekend of highs and lows, of great joy and also much sadness.  

The Enchanted Scrapbook closed its doors Saturday night.  I am so sad to say goodbye!  The card I'm sharing is from the Copic class I taught last Monday night, a fun Stamping Bella image by Mo Manning.  What a great group of students!  I hope and pray that I'll see each of you again soon!  I really love teaching...it gives me a such a rush to see a student master a technique that they've previously struggled with.  It is so fun to share the love we have for this fun hobby!  I am so grateful to Kristi for giving me the opportunity to teach at TES...I will miss shopping at your store and visiting with your girls!      

Our church service this morning was a celebration of the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2012!  The youth band led us in worship, and they were amazing!  We rejoiced with nearly a dozen high school seniors, two college graduates, and their parents.  Our son, Matthew, who has always been homeschooled, was among them.  Many of these students were in 1st or 2nd grade when we first started attending church at FIUMC.  Lots of great memories along the way...I'm so proud of each and every one of these precious kids!  I love when they come and give me hugs and share what is happening in their lives.  I cried when I read what Jeremy, our youth leader, wrote in the gift given to Matthew, a beautiful small leather-bound version of The Message.  Today was such a fantastic, memorable Sunday!

I know this probably sounds silly, but I already miss our tree!  Each time I pull into or out of the driveway, the space it used to occupy seems so naked!  In some ways, the change will be welcome...no more hickory nuts to dent the hood of the truck!  Still, it is such an abrupt change it will take me a while to get used to it!

On a much more serious note, you may have heard about the accident in Nebraska that took the lives of an elderly man and two basketball coaches, and left several young players severely injured.  One of those who lost his life was the cousin of the husband of my OCL DT mate, Debbie Fisher.  And one in the hospital suffering severe head injury requiring major surgery was her own young cousin, Chad.  I hope you will join me in lifting your prayers for them and for their community as they heal from this awful tragedy.  They need some miracles.  

I'm glad that stamping is such great "therapy!"  I'll be back in the morning with more cards!

Holiday Cruiser!

Here's a card made for Copic marker classes that I taught on Monday at The Enchanted Scrapbook.  It features Our Craft Lounge's Holiday Cruiser, a very versatile stamp for this time of year! We had so much fun!  I think the girls really enjoyed it, and we're looking forward to next month's class!

Fall Foliage!

Here are two companion cards glowing with the colors of Fall!  They're for a Copic coloring class that I will be teaching at Pictures in Time on October 18th.  The Big Girls' Coloring Club meets during the hour before class to discuss all things Copic, to be inspired by each other, and to shop!  The class stamps and Copic markers are on sale during meeting time, and then in the class time that follows, we focus on coloring techniques and tips for that particular stamp set.

These cards are made using the Our Craft Lounge set, Giving Thanks.  They feature beautiful Spellbinders fancy tags and show options for "less" or "more" in card design.

If you're a local in the greater Jacksonville area, I hope to see you there!

Enchanting Witch!

I'm teaching a Copics class today at our newest LSS, The Enchanted Scrapbook!  We're using a really cute little witch whose wand is misbehaving!  One of the cards we're making is a z-fold design with a graveyard in the foreground and a starry sky background (Eat Cake Graphics stamps, Bella Blvd Too Cute to Spook "Quadrants"), which combine to make the perfect spooky setting for her spell-gone-awry!

These colors are some of my favorites to work with!  She looks completely different but even more wonderful with the colors all switched around!  I like this bolder, brighter version better!  If these had not been for a class, I would've used some darker purples for more contrast on the first version, but I was trying to keep the number of markers to fewer than a dozen, and make blending easier for beginners!  Most people find the deeper purples and reds a bit more challenging to work with.

I am really looking forward to teaching classes locally (at The Enchanted Scrapbook and also at Pictures in Time).  I hope to make lots of new stamping friends from the Jacksonville area!  I'll be sharing more cards soon for upcoming October classes!