What's on My Kitchen Counter

I sure hope all your Christmas dreams came through and that you were able to do some fun winter activities like making snow angels, building snowmen, sledding, skiing, and ice skating.  Those things seem so fun to me because we don't get to do any of those things here in Central Alabama due to our mild winters (except on rare occasions).  I made a frosty card sing some new DRS Design Stamps and some Snowtex. I did the card base by stenciling on some Snowtex (heavy in some spots and not so much in others).  Then I flecked on some more to make it look frosty.  On my sentiment panel, I stamped the Girl Swirl Heart lightly on the edges in Versamark and then chalked the panel with some tan chalk.  The versamark made the swirls lightly appear. Then I stamped on the new Baby It is Cold Outside Greeting .  On the skates, I stamped the Ice Skates image, fussy cut it, and glittered them up with Stickles.  Many hugz, Nancy

Hello, my friends, sorry I have been missing in blogland so much lately.  Here are my excuses: *I have been watching one of my darling Grandsons on Saturdays (eats into my Saturday catch up time). *I made the Splitcoast Stampers Dirty Dozen (that is sooooo much fun and a dream come true). *We expanded our junk booth from 1 to 3 booths. *I signed up to be in the Church Christmas play thinking I could help with sets or bring snacks and ended up with the biggest speaking part.   The play is over and we have been working to baby-proof our house more so maybe I can catch up a bit more.  Here is a card I posted on the DRS Designs blog: This was made by stamping the DRS Designs Silent Night Sheet Music image and then stamping the Holly Bells image in Versamark and chalking it with tan and green chalk.   I realized silent night didn't need some bells so I covered up the song title with the Small Merry Christmas sentiment and stenciled, sponged, and splattered thing

Today's posted card is one I made with some old and new DRS Designs images.  Need some more Christmas cards fast!! The images are Cardinal on Branch , Holly Jingle Bells ,, and Holly Days Christmas Greeting .  You can read more about how I did it on the DRS Designs Blog  but basically it morphed into this card because I had to keep covering up mistakes (I didn't mention that on the DRS Designs Blog but it is true).  Lots of stenciling and layering and strategic layering - lol!!! Hugz

Have you ever checked out Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas Challenge?  I usually do one tag for it but this year I have done three (maybe next year I can get to 12).  The tags in the challenge are totally delightful mixed media creations! Here is one of my tags which was all made with DRS Designs Images. This one was made by painting up some corrugated cardboard with white acrylic paint.  Then I let that dry and used a Prima zig zag stencil and some modeling paste to create the texture in between the ridges.  Next, I stamped four Giant Poinsettias , colored them up with Tim Holtz Distress Crayons and layered them.  For the middle I took some gel medium and formed three round dots which I covered in gold glitter (took forever to dry but I love the dimension on them).  For a sentiment, I used part of the new DRS Designs' All is Calm Christmas Greeting .  I am out of time this morning so I will post the other two tonight. Hugz, Nancy

This card really excites me.  Not because it is any great beauty but because of how I colored it up.  The Fall Leaf with Acorn (I cut off the Acorn) images were colored with these things (in order): *Lipton Tea with Honey in Pineapple Mango *Yellow Tail Merlot *Tabasco, Coffee Grounds, and Paprika The main scripture is Psalm 100 Thanksgiving Greeting - one of the recent stamp releases by DRS Designs.  Each leaf smells really good too! I haven't been posting on my blog much lately.  So many life things going on.  Spending lots of time with family (it becomes even more important when you lose one of them and realize you should have spent more time with them soaking up even more love and stories) and trying to get our rental house ready to rent again (it has been storage for our Junque Booth for awhile).  Also some very exciting new things: *Another Grandson on the way - that will make 3! We are planning the family football team now! *I am practicing for our church C

So you thought sharks, jelly fish, and eels were the scary things at the beach?  LOL! I love the new Zombie images and sentiments about to be released by DRS Designs.  They are all so fun.  I stamped the Zombie hand and sign and masked them.  Then I stamped the Sea Grass (my fave DRS image) and sponged all around to get a moonlit beach look (masked a moon too).  I love how this came out.  The new images will be available this weekend and I even have an idea of how to use a few in my Bible Journaling!  Fun, fun, fun! Hugz, Nancy  

The new DRS Designs Challenge for this week is Shaker cards.  I have to admit I am never thrilled when a challenge requires measuring or being precise or following directions (I call this engineering and I am not good at it).  It usually takes me a zillion tries.  This only took three tries and still could have been better.  In the end, it was kind of fun (I hate to admit it.) I used a simple circle die to cut out the middle. The boat is flying a bit but that works with the Miracle greeting better don't you think?  I used the new Sailboat image and the Every Day A Miracle Greeting from DRS Designs.  I sponged the main panel with Tim Holtz inks.   Thanks for stopping by.  Hugz

I am behind in posting.  Things have been a bit stormy here - went out of town and got behind, then overcommitted me got run down and came down with a severe case of Bronchitis, and now hubby is having foot surgery so we are trying to get all his pre-op, visits, medical equipment, etc. all in place.  I had a few minutes this morning so I thought I would catch up on some of the cards I have made lately. This one was done for the fantasy challenge in the Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge last weekend.  The image is by Crafts for Eternity and is called Princess Nella .  I flipped her for the flying image and added some wings.  Did the bg with Distress Inks splashed with water. I was inspired by the Inspiration Challenge on SCS a week ago and attempted to make a tag for youngest Grandson's First Birthday Present (his party is going to have a circus theme).  Pieced the tent together from some scraps and used the DRS Designs Jimbo and Gang image (cut up to do some curtain peeking

I am having so much fun playing with my watercolors these days - my collection of colors cost approximately $13 and I have had them awhile now.  I have only had to replace the white.  Colored this one up for the Outlawz Paper A La Mode Challenge (Anything Goes) and the Splitcoast Stampers color challenge:  Sugarplum, cucumber, and denim.  The image is from Connie Fong - she is one of the sponsors of the Paper A La Mode Challenge this week.  It is called Torri the Dragon - Birthday Girl.  Precious!  This card was an adventure.  I started doing the bg in blue, but it wasn't cooperating and I was getting lazy.  I thought about throwing it out, but decided to splatter on some more colors and put on some distress inks.  I ended up loving it more than the original picture in my head (that hardly ever happens!).  Hope you have a great weekend.  I am off to some garage sales and then my first Grandson's first Birthday party.  Should be fun! Hugz

Do you ever get in crafting moods?  I have never been a great colorist - markers and me have a serious love/hate relationship (I love them and they hate me).  They are so expensive, they dry up on me (do you really have to put those tops on good? and refilling is never fun), I can never find them (my fault), and I am too lazy and cheep to take a class and learn how to use the correctly.  So I am on marker strike!  I colored this selfie card with distress inks and water colors.  I was inspired to do the card from two of my favorite crafters - Julie and Sheila over at DRS Designs (I put links to their cards if you click on their names).   I used the Jimbo and Gang and Leafy Tree Branch images and the Jungle Out There sentiment - all from DRS Designs.  I love this selfie concept and will be doing more of them. The new DRS Designs Challenge started today and it is Naked Stamping !  Sounds exciting doesn't it?  The concept is to stamp your image but don't color it. 

The Outlaws Paper A La Mode Challenge is Christmas in July (great chance to get some Christmas Cards done if you want to join us.  One of my biggest dilemmas at work is what to get everyone that is cute and doesn't cost a fortune (there are 33 of us).  I found this great image from Dollar Graphics Depot called Christmas Coffee and Cocoa and it gave me a great idea.  I printed out the image making sure it was on the right side of the paper so I could score it, fold it, and make the card straight from the image.  Then I used the other image to pop up the sleeve and the gingerbread man. I sponged the sides with distress ink and stickled up the sparkles and icing. Super fast card which will be perfect when I do 33 of them. I can slip in a packet of cocoa and it will be a fun little gift. Hope you can join us over at the Outlawz. Hugz

The DRS Designs Challenge this week is a color challenge and here is the pallet: This picture makes me feel refreshed just looking at it!  Here is my creation Stamped the  Sailboat  image, sponged yellow on top and blue on bottom and edged with yellow all the way around.  Colored up my sails and boat with a paintbrush dipped in my inks.  Mixed up some white acrylic paint and recollections fine glitter to make my waves - the glitter added a lot of texture so I will be using this combination (more glitter) for snow on my winter cards this year.  I stamped on the You are My Sunshine sentiment as it seemed to fit this card the best of all my sentiments.  Took my scraps and stamped on some Lines of Plenty and stenciled on some of the leftover paint and glitter to make the little banners on the side.  Hope you are inspired by these colors and fun image.  Come play with us! Made this card earlier in the week also using DRS Designs images, ink, and an animal

I always show what is on my kitchen counter since I craft there, but today I want to show you what was on my kitchen table this weekend: It is a Little Blue Truck painted on a giant 6 ft box.  It covers my super large kitchen table.  My daughter and I painted it this past weekend for my Grandson's 1st Birthday.  They are going to cut it out and use it for a picture prop at the party.  So fun!!! I made a few cards this past weekend as well.  This one was for the Splitcoast Stampers Black/White Inspiration Challenge and the Fan Club Challenge for June/July: This one is for the Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge.  The image is from A Day for Daisies and is called Wedding Mum.  I sponged the bg and the images (I used three copies of the image). Hope your weekend was wonderful and your week is going well.  Many hugz!

DRS Designs has some new fun stamps so I played with them this week (they are available in the store in a few days). My first card is made with the new sailboat, island scene, and ruler stamps.  I also used the Big Mouth Bass , You are my Sunshine , and Wood grain background images.  I was going for a Tim Holtz look on this one so I sponged and sprayed and stenciled the card and fish. I entered this one in the SCS Inspiration Challenge (the Tim Holtz inspiration from two weeks ago) and this week's color challenge.  I love all these images (new and old)!  After did the card, I realized I had stamped the woodgrain so lightly that it looked like rain so I will be doing this again with a rain sentiment.  Fun!!! Today starts the new weekly challenge at DRS Designs and the theme is Creative Piercing.  I used the new Congrats on your Pet sentiment (not sure what it will be called in the store) and the fun Doggie Dilemma Dog with Fence image with is already available. The fence d

The new DRS Designs Challenge is Life Is A Beach!  Cards and Creations that are all about the beach or have beach themed additions. These days, I am really craving some beach time - time at a very remote beach with no people and a nice early morning or late evening walk.  The crashing wave sounds coming through the window at night. The kind of beach trip that restores your balance.  Since that is what I want, my card has a peaceful deserted beach and soft colors. I sponged on distress inks, drew on some little waves with a white gel pen,, then splashed on some white chalk paint on the shoreline.  Next, I stamped the DRS Designs Sitting Thinking Greeting and the Adirondack Chair (fussy cut and adhered it). I love beach cards - hope you will join us in this challenge. Hugz

Sad news on this post so grab a tissue.  My Mother, Sara Hodge, passed away Saturday morning.  I was able to be there at her side, and I am so thankful.  She isn't suffering anymore and no longer has to fear a painful death from cancer.  We were lucky enough to have her 3.5 years after her stage 4 diagnosis.  She had a wonderful life and she was such a positive and Christian person so I know she is happy and in heaven. The funeral is tomorrow so I wanted to do something a little different as a memorial to her.  I pinned THIS wonderful art collage by Linda Cain and studied it in detail.  I thought it would be great to use pieces of my Mother's life on a collage and then add some pictures from her life. My Sister, Sharon, and my Daughter, Crystal, helped on this project. So we went to her craft desk and gathered up all the little scraps and things she was using to make the last card she was going to send.  We also grabbed some thread, flowers, a stamp, her pallet knife, so

I have been practicing some shaker cards.  I have developed a love/hate relationship with them.  I have thrown away more than I have kept, but I think I am starting to get the hang of them.   This one has some issues, but I love how the sponging and stamping came out.  I did it for several challenges on Splitcoast Stampers.  All the images are from SU! and all the inks are Distress and Archival plus a bit of SU! Hope your week is going well - mine isn't going to well.  My Mom is very sick - please fit her into your prayers. Hugz!

The new challenge at DRS Designs is the Camouflage technique - so fun!!! I used the DRS Designs Give Thanks Bible Verse stamp, some star dies MFT), and watercolor paints - so easy.  This DRS stamp works for so many situations:  Bible Journaling, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and thank you cards. Hope you will play along with us and make a camo card as well.  You totally need to check out the other DT cards - they are awesome! Hugz

My youngest daughter's 21st birthday is this week.  We have a junk booth together and love to go junkin' so I thought this would be a fun card for her.  Part of my inspiration is the May flowers challenge at Splitcoast Stampers - I used some metal flowers and gems I have been hoarding for years.  For a little distressing, I added in some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain around the edges.  Fun, fun, fun! Hugz

The new DRS Designs Bible Journaling stamps are super great and help to make your pages look awecome.  I used the new  Strength and Dignity Greeting  on this Bible Journaling card.  I lead a Bible Journaling class at my church and last month we made wedding dresses out of doilies. They loved them! So for the next class we are gong to make dresses out of umbrellas.  I used the DRS Designs  Umbrella   image to make this dress.  I stamped the image 9 times and shaded them using a sponge and some Tim Holtz distress inks.  I then layered up the umbrellas cutting sections off the top umbrella layers and using them to expand the bottom layers.  I sponged on a bit more ink and then added a few starfish from the   4-in-1 seashells  image.  I then added a little gold lace to the top and sprayed the whole dress with some Fireworks spray.  For the base layer, I stamped the main greeting and then sponged around a chicken wire stencil.  It needed some more texture so I added some modeling paste

Its a super color challenge at DRS Designs .  Here is the inspiration pallet: Such yummy colors and I love the inspiration picture too.  Reminds me of my camping years - you know those years prior to make up, curling irons, hair straighteners, and boys! LOL  As I have aged, I look at this picture and I think it is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to be out in it.  Here in Alabama, and probably everywhere else, this picture is full of hidden scary things - bugs by the millions, spiders, snakes, wild hogs, and no bathrooms!  Anyway, it is great for inspiration. I decided to go with a wood theme, continue on the boy theme from last week, and incorporate as many of the colors as I could (I left out the brown accidently as I had intended to have a kraft layer and forgot - but it is in the bg of my picture...). I started my main panel with some white card stock (a full page which is where I got my stars too) and masked off a portion and sponged it.  I did five stripes.  I did

The techniques Tim Holtz used on his May tags are so awesome:  tissue tape resist, adding texture paste, sponging, stenciling, attaching findings, metallic sprays, and making flowers.  I so wanted to try them all together on a tag.  Also - I so want one of those new mixed media pallets he has come out with! I started with a white sheet of paper, and I cut it with a Sizzix Tim Holtz Cabinet Die.  Then I stamped the DRS Designs  Merry Christmas Especially to You Greeting  on the top and the  Giant Poinsettia  image on the bottom left corner.  I stamped another Giant Poinsettia on another sheet and formed up some leaves. Next, I used a chicken wire stencil and added some modeling paste.  Once the modeling paste dried, I sponged on some Tim Holtz Distress Inks.  Then, I cut some stars (I cut one in half) and added them on.  The May cool technique is to take some tissue tape and cover some spots on your project before spraying. I used some washi tape and covered the sentiment and so

This week's DRS Designs Challenge is Distressing .  I made a card full of distressing.  I did paint distressing with my embossing folder and also dressed all my layers other than the base and the trees. The sentiment, Love you to the moon greeting, is my very favorite DRS Designs Sentiment (which is saying a lot because there are some awesome sentiments at DRS).  On the top layer under the trees, I used the Script Font Background stamp.  Fun card to make. Hope you will join us and show us some of your distressing! Hugz

Super quick and easy baby card today. I needed a baby card so I just sponged some TH Distress ink on the bottom layer, then stamped the DRS Designs  Four Flower Background image.  On the next layer, I slapped on this recycled giraffe embellishment stolen off an old baby gift bag, and stamped A Treat for You Greeting ! So easy and fast. Hugz

Who doesn't love some cupcakes?  I love this Eureka stamp called Cupcake Wreath .  The store has it in rubber and digi.  I added some sugar glitter to it to make it even more festive. This card was made for the Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge which is Anything Goes.  The prizes are awesome so come join us if you get a chance. Hugz

The latest challenge at DRS Designs is "It's a new day" which is a challenge involving the word "day" - entries need to have that word on them. I am really into banners the last few weeks.  I made some for our junque booth and we are making some for a baby shower for my niece this weekend.  I thought one would be really cute on a birthday card. I used the following DRS Designs stamps on this card: Small 1 line Happy Birthday Splatter BG Script Font Background Flower border I made my banner base out of a strip of raffia - it was a bit harder to tie but I liked the more rustic look.  I used white kraft paint as accents around the border of the card front and as splatters.  I love how white looks on kraft. Hope you will join us this week. Hugz

I have taken another little break from blogland lately.  My youngest daughter, Allie, and I have been pretending we have a little side business with a small junque store booth.  Here is a picture of our booth: I have a few cards on the old screen door up against the curtain.  Seems like it wouldn't take much time, but we have to find things for it, keep it straightened up, figure out how to display things so people buy them, etc.  Yesterday the soap box and cart sold so we need to go to the store and figure out how to fix the items that were placed on the floor.  It is sooo much fun! I have still been making cards though - it is still my favorite hobby.  I needed some more birthday cards and came up with this one: I used the following DRS Designs images:   Birthday Candle Burst , One More Candle Greeting , and Starry Background .   I sponged the bg to make brighter (Summer Sun - SU!).  I wanted this one to be super festive. Hope you have a wonderful day! Hugz

At the Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge we are casing cards from Outlawz members.  I chose this great card by Henriette: Here is my case: I changed up the images, flipped the sentiment to the side and used a different stencil. Our sponsor for the challenge is Star Stampz and the image I used is Gold Fish Fishing .  This Etsy shop has some of the cutest digis around.  I love this one.  I colored her up with water color pencils since they were out on my calendar.  My stencil is a chicken wire stencil but it is muted due to the crazy way I sponged around it - I have got to stop being so lazy! Hugz!

DRS Designs just came out with some great images designed for Bible Journaling, but they also work really well on cards and other projects.  One of the images is this Open Bible.   Some girls in my Bible Journaling class wanted an open Bible image to be able to write verse references in and  I passed that on to DRS.  This is great image they came up with.  I have used it on a number of Bible Journaling pages, but this weekend I was playing with it at a crop and this card came to mind.. I stamped the image twice and then trimmed around one of them so I could add pages to the Bible and make it look even more like an open Bible.  I used the Script Font Background to do the main panel and to stamp over the open Bible.  I finished off the card with the Count Your Blessings Greeting . Fun to make and look at. By the way, I just want to say that I am definitely blessed and have millions of blessings.  Even when life is tough, we have sooooo much.  God is good! Hugz

Catching up after the computer disaster of 2016!  Yay! I have been doing a lot of Bible Journaling lately - here are two pages I did this week using DRS Designs images. I did this top page using the Impossible Faith Greeting and the Big Mouth Bass image. On this page I used the DRS Designs Hot Air Balloon image. I have used this image on a few pages in my Bible - it works for many differ scriptures and you can color up or decorate the image so many different ways.  I colored the page using water color pencils and a Micron Pen.  I stamped the images in a light ink and went over them with the Micron Pen - that way I don't have any bleed through.  This page is also for the current DRS Designs Challenge which is to use something that starts with a "B" on your creation.  I used balloons and the color blue and I did it on a Bible. Hugz!

Hello, my friends.   I am sorry I have been missing in action lately.   I have been crazy busy (work, family, company) and then my computer died.  Once my computer died, it was all I could do to slip my cards in my DT challenges from my iPhone. I little depression/sadness over my alopecia diagnosis didn't help much either - but I am dealing with it much better now.    It would take awhile to post all my cards over the last month so I am just going to post the one from this weekend's Outlawz challenge.   The image is called Lounging Moose and it is from QKR.  The image is actually full body, but since one of the DT members had already used it that way I decided to do a close up of his head.  I water-colored the imaged and then ink distressed the whole card.  QKR has a ton of moose images and all are super fun like this.  They are sponsoring this week's Paper A La Mode (anything goes) challenge at the Outlawz if you want to mosey over and join. I plan to

I love the colors in the new DRS Designs new color challenge: Makes me want some Jordan Almonds (I think that is what these are).  I used most these colors in my card but I hid them in splashes on the wood planks and the sign.  I made my bg planks with the DRS Woodgrain background stamp.  After stamping it, I rubbed the planks with a sponge dipped repeatedly in SU! Chocolate Chip ink.  Next I colored the planks with a pink water color pencil and then wet and spread the color.  Then I splashed on some blue and green wet water colors I mixed up.  To get in some cream and tan, I mixed up some modeling paste with some tan water color and spread it over some dry wall tape in the corners.  I made my main panel using the new Know Jesus Know Hope and doodled around the edges.  My red was too strong so I toned it down with some gold Stickles which I also added to my rolled roses. Fun card - now I am trying to figure how to do the same type of thing on a Bible Journaling page - ca

This week's Outlawz Paper A La Mode challenge is Focus on the Sentiment.  The sponsor is Digi Stamp Boutique .  I used a sentiment and image from their super fun Boys Toys set.  This set covers golf, racing, fishing and gaming and is perfect for those masculine cards.     I did my background with smooshing and acetate smooshing in a few distress ink blues.  I did my fish and my sentiments from the same panel. My second weekend card is one I made when challenged to use a stick on a card.  I also used some cardboard, drywall tape, water colors, modeling paste, and a super fun Tim Holtz Crazy Bird image.  My sentiment is from DRS Designs.  Fun card to make. Hope you had a good weekend too! Hugz