What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello blog friends - I am still here.  We had snow in Alabama this week so it really looked like Christmas around here!  Hardly ever snows so it is such a treat for us!   Here are a few recent Christmas cards I have made: This one was made with an old SU! set - Natural Beauty.  It is one of my favorites.  I challenged a friend to make a Christmas card using it as it is one of her favorites too.  This is my creation: This one is the Christmas card I mass produced this year.  I used DRS Designs images:  Frog on a Log , Santa Puppy and Triple Holly .  I sponged the bg with various colors, colored the images with Prisma Pencils and flecked on some Snowtex. Here is a fun little Christmas tag made from an Amazon box and lots of Snowtex and gold micro beads.  Super fun to make.  The rolled sentiment is from DRS Designs - Christmas Especially to you . Hope you are getting ready for Christmas and enjoying the season.  Hugz!

I have changed in my crafting.  Gone are the days of throwing out multiple tries on a card - now days, I just change direction.  I changed direction on this creation a BUNCH of times. It started out as a card with a fun old die, but my die cutting base is messed up and the die is slightly bent so it slipped.  I tried again with a smaller die and it slipped.  Destined to save the image, I went with an oval but didn't have enough paper left to get a full oval so I had to cover it up with something.  I found this fun bow I had made for something else but never used.  The bow was too big and bulky for a card so this became a large tag.  It is currently tied on a bottle of wine, but I can see it tied to lots of fun things. The image is the DRS Designs Filigree Pumpkin inked up with several colors of DOX (Distress Oxide Ink - thanks to Loll Thompson for teaching me that acronym) and DI (Distress Ink).  Then I stamped the Deco Happy Thanksgiving To You Greeting .  I scrubbed on a li

I have some fun cards to share today. On my first card, I did a quick background by inking up some foil with inks in circles, spritzing it all with water, liberally spraying on some Fireworks spray, and then slapping down the paper to soak it all up.  After it dried, I threw some water on it and then mopped it up with a paper towel.  It makes a cool background and if you do lighter ink in the middle circle, you don't have to worry about your lighting on the card.  After that fun adventure dried, I stamped the new The Floor image (this is going to be a well used image - isn't it great?).  I had so much fun doing some image surgery to create my pumpkin grouping!  Most my pumpkins are from the Hot Air Balloon image:  I stamped them with the balloon stamp and then again with the new Filgree Pumpkin image,  I cut the basket portion off at various levels from the balloons to create different sized pumpkins, sponged them with Distress Inks/Oxides, and put them in a little g

Every once in a while, I see something on Pinterest that I just have to try and do myself - this ostrich is one of those times. I drew it out with a regular ink pen and some Prisma pencils.  Isaiah 43: 18-21 - has so many messages.  I focused on our need to praise God for His mightiness and all He has done for us and plans to do for us.  Even ostriches, who normally put their head in the sand and are clueless, take note of God in these verses. Did you know ostriches are mentioned more than once in the bible?  They are a good way to illustrate one of  our big weakness - putting our own heads in the sand. Many hugz and wishes for a great week - don't be an ostrich (I will try too - lol). Nancy

Back after another long absence.  So glad you dropped by.  I am still crafting, working, junking, and hanging out with family - especially those three cute Grandsons of mine. I have been doing a lot of Bible Journaling.  It seems to help me focus on what is important in life, and I always feel so refreshed and relaxed after doing a page. Here are a few of my favorite pages: Don't you love Squirt?  After watching Finding Dory a million times in last 6 months, I have come to really like the scene he is in.  He seemed to fit this lovely section of Psalm 124:1-5.        If it has not been for the Lord who was on our side,        Let Israel now say -        "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,         When men rose up against us,        Then they would have swallowed us alive.         When their wrath was kindled against us:        Then the water would have overwhelmed us,        The stream would have gone over our soul;        Then the swollen water

I look forward to the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers every Saturday.  That challenge always gets me going and starts my weekend off perfectly.  I even get up between 4:00 and 5:00 AM so I have plenty of time to do it before rushing off to garage sales.  This week the challenge was a Pinterest Board full of Studio Calico scrapbook pages.  I chose THIS page as my inspiration.  That board made me want to start scrapbooking again - I haven't done much in the last year but I am going on a retreat soon and I think I am going to get some Studio Calico supplies and do my pages like the ones on this board.  Love everything in it.  This weekend, I did a card and a Bible Art Journaling page using the scrapbook page I selected as my inspiration.  The card is part of the thank you cards I am making for my girls to give out after their father's passing (my ex-husband).  I wanted to make them very personal so I am using copies of old pictures.  This scrapbook page chal

Hello friends! I have been so lazy lately!  For some reason, I just cant seem to do anything that requires detailed coloring. All my coloring has to be slapped on or I just don't do it.  For example, I wanted to use the tail part of the new DRS Designs Sandy Mermaid image for a fish card.  I didn't feel like coloring so I just slapped a sponge in some ink and swiped it around. I didn't even use the right sponges or start with a fresh one - I just dabbed the closest old sponge.  I used the ink on my counter because I was too lazy to go look for better colors.  Then I took those same inks and dragged them over some acetate. I sprinkled one some water with my hands (too lazy to go find the mister) and dabbed the splotches on my base panel.  I know if I videoed my processes, people would be horrified.  On this card, I stamped the DRS Designs See You Later Alligator on a panel a few times and just sponged different inks all over the page (used the same sponge for all o

Hello friends, I have been telling myself I need to exercise more - I feel like I am ready to start soon, but haven't.  I think about it a lot... Today, at least my card involves some exercise - lol. I did ink smooshing - where you swipe your ink on a surface, squirt some water and lay your paper on it.  Made several panels and used one inside as well.  The Take a Hike stamp is new at DRS Designs and I paired it up with the DRS Silhouette Hiker image (added a few more dots at the end of the mountain line).  Inside I used the new DRS Follow Your Dreams Signpost stamp.  I think this would be a super graduation card, but would work for many other occasions too such as someone moving to a new job, traveling, actually taking a hike, starting college, or pursuing a dream like starting a new business or learning something new.  - Hope your week is going well.  Mine has sure been interesting!  Hugz, Nancy

One of my favorite things to do is imagine all the great things I will be able to do when I retire.  I have lots of friends are work who are retiring soon, and I am a bit jealous!  DRS Designs has come out with some really awesome retirement images, and I used several of them on my cards today.  To make the card base on my first card, I sponged on some SU! Ink and some Distressed walnut stain ink and threw on some water (seriously - I just threw it on - super fun).  I stamped and then sponged the other panels with As You Retire  and See You Later Alligator .  I fussy cut and added the Silhouette Male Golfer image .   On my next card I swiped some SU! Yellow ink and some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain on a sheet of aluminum foil and misted it with water.  I then dipped my paper in the ink and let it dry.  Next I stamped the new See You Later Alligator stamp 2 times and cut out the sunflower and butterfly sections.  I added one flower from the Polka Dot Flower Tr

Sometimes I just get a sketch or image in my head and I can't seem to stop.  I played in the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS and loved THIS card by Jari so much that I cased it twice.  Here is my second card: I used an old MFP stamp set and sponged the images rather than coloring them.  Since I had the set out, I went a head and did a BAJ page as well: I used an ODBD stamp for the verse.   Hope your weekend was wonderful - I sure needed the extra day of rest! Hugz

Ever have those situations where you make a ton of something and then have to figure out what to do with it?  I made a ton of rolled roses out of some old cookbook pages so this past week and a half, I put them on several creations I put them on this textured tag I did to showcase a new sign image at DRS Designs.  I love to paint up some corrugated cardboard and make into something lovely.  Wouldn't this be great on a gift to a grad? Next, I needed a thank you card for Kenny's awesome heart surgeon. She was so wonderful and put us at ease.  He is doing great - just like his old self laughing and teasing and being lots more energetic!  Praise the Lord! Today, I played in the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS and cased  THIS wonderful card by Jari.  I changed up images, colors and details plus left off her ribbon and added some of my rolled roses.  I had the images out so I did a BAJ page too. Splitcoaststampers has a wonderful Bible Art Journaling chal

Hello friends! Much inspiration in the Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoaststampers today.  I picked this lovely basket as my inspiration.  Here is my card: I love how my ink smooshing bg and flower came out.  After finishing it, I decided to try a BAJ using the same techniques and inspirational picture.  Today was a hard day.  I attended my ex-husband's funeral in support of him and my daughters.  I tried over the years to get him to open up about Christ and he always told me not to worry because he would be ok. The last few years he suffered from Parkinson's and the ravages it takes on a body.  His cousin is a Gideon, and he shared a story at the funeral of his last visit. Overton told him he wanted to go to heaven and wanted Jesus. My girls were lucky enough to watch him pray on their last few visits.  What a joy and peace for us all to know we will see him again and Hades did not have another victory. Lovely words in 1 Corinthians 15: 5

Hello friends!  Hope I still have some followers left after my super long blogging break!  I took a break because of the time commitment with being on the Dirty Dozen at Splitcoast Stampers.  Boy was that fun! Well now my term is over and I am coming baaak as soon as hubby recovers from his pacemaker he had installed on Monday! Before I go, I am going to share the BAJ page I did a few nights ago: I did it for the color challenge at SCS and for the BAJ challenge at SCS (Joy).  I drew the elements and colored them up with pencils and watercolors.  I so wish I had spent more time on my handwriting but it is what it is.  There is so much Joy in being a Christian - joy despite all the tough parts of life.  We have it so easy with all our conveniences these days, but the conveniences can't help with the emotional toughness of life.  Losing loved ones, losing health, and watching others do the same.  But there are soooo many blessings if we look and think.  I am so blessed! 

On my way to a crafting retreat this past weekend, I found a super fun classic rock radio station.  They played all my favorite old songs.  When listening to them, I found many verses that I felt would be perfect for Rock inspired BAJ!  I did a ton of pages, but I am only going to share a few so don't worry! Stairway to Heaven Inspired by the Led Zeppelin Song I danced to a thousand times in high school and college.  Some say the song is about drugs, some say about the church, and some say it was a message about how we should treat others.  I think the song title is inspirational and some of the lines are beautiful.  I pared it with 1 Corinthians 16:13 - as I feel that passage tells us so much about what we should be doing here on earth. We can't build a stairway to heaven, but we can make sure there is one open for us.    When the Children Cry I  thought that many of the passages in this song fit perfectly with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

Hungry? I fried up some paper bacon and eggs yesterday. I made the egg and bacon strips using a mixture of Liquitex gloss gel medium and Imaginecrafts Goosebump spray.  I watercolored the bacon and inked up the yolk after cupping the circle in the middle using a stylus.  Then I put a large amount of the gel mixture on the papers and fried them with a heat tool.  I did a few layers on the bacon sponging on some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut stain in between coats.  Built up an extra layer of gel on the yolk.  I was inspired by three challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com:  the Inspiration Challenge (my choice of image was some pretty Easter Eggs), the Sketch Challenge (I used it for this card), and the Mixed Media Challenge (my blue paper strip is from a security envelope lining and I used three mediums to qualify).  If you are not a member, I really encourage you to join (it is free unless you want a Fan Club Membership which is not expensive and well worth it).  I

On Splitcoaststampers.com, the CAS challenge this week is icy/frosty cards, and I am stuck on them!! I am feeling frosty even if the weather here in Central Alabama is still on the warm side.  Some of the new images are great for frosty cards.  I used the new Snowy Days Frosty Nights Greeting and added some Snowtex and glitter to get a frosty look.  I added some fun little Skippy the Penguins at the bottom of my new Stitched Dies.  On this card, I used my new MFT snowball stencil and Stitched Rectangle die plus an old heart punch and birch tree die (I think it is also from MFT).  I used modeling paste mixed with white chalk paint to make the falling snow and Snowtex mixed with glitter for the snow accumulations.  The sentiment is SU!  I love how this came out.  Stay warm (or cool). Hugz

There are some fun new stamps in the latest DRS Designs release.  I used two of them on this fun Valentine's card. I am so on a kick with using all that leftover cardboard from Christmas!  To make this card,  I cut and painted up a corrugated cardboard heart with some white chalk paint.  Then I layered on the new Amazing Love Puzzle (I fussy cut and sponged it), and the Amazing Valentine's Day Greeting .   To add an element of whimsy, I added a Cupig  (love this little character).  Don't you just love Valentine's cards?  They bring back so many fun childhood memories for me.  I am entering this card in the: Crafty Sentiments Challenge which is Anything Goes this week. In the Pink Challenge - Anything goes but your card has to have pink as the main color. Pile it On Challenge   -  Colorfully Aware (using an awareness ribbon as inspiration - Breast Cancer is my choice) Hugz