21st Century Pillow Book

I went to Baltimore with my family this month for a Pampered Chef conference. That was pretty rad, but there was no way I was going to be in Baltimore and not visit Edgar Allan Poe's house and grave. I took a mess of pictures at each place. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get in to his house. Someone currently loves there, and the visiting hours are short, and didn't work with the time I was actually at the house. Plus, Poe's home is in a pretty unsafe neighborhood (so says the cop that just happened to be parked in front of Poe's house). So, since I had the fam in the car, we decided it best to beat feet and visit the grave. The cop said that was a cooler place anyway, and he was right. My husband couldn't find parking, so I went in solo. Turns out I wasn't the only Poe fan there that day. They kindly took some photos of me in certain spots, and I them, but the shot I have on the layout below I took myself. It's at Poe's original grave site. He h

Hello! Welcome to the second stop of the Bombshell Stamps Hump Day Hop! The theme I chose for this month was "Let's Hear it for the Boys." The theme could have been interpreted any way the hoppers chose. I decided to go with a gifty item for a guy. Something he could perhaps have in his game room, or on his bar. I made a set of 4 coasters using the Homeward Bound set and Travertine Tiles. That's the complete set. You may recall I made another one of these tiles a couple weeks ago, but that one wasn't a coaster, as it had a big, awesome hole in it. Check it out HERE . I used the same technique for these, but I added a piece of cork to the back with E6000. I think this one is my favorite. But it' a tough choice! I made sure to make each one pretty different from the next. Each image is colored with Copics, on tissue paper. I have become so hooked (pun intended) on making these tiles. This set will be in my Etsy shop shortly. And I plan t

Hey Everybody! I cannot believe how quickly the summer has flown by. My poor blog has not seen much activity from me, as I have been trying to hang with my kidlings as much as possible. But, I do have a new card to share with you today. Since my children are young, one of the newest Simply B Stamps collections really appealed to me. It's called 1st Steps . And I really saw my kids in all of these images. Today's card features "Think, Think Jude." I colored Jude with my Phoenix in mind...right down to the mismatched socks. Let's just say that some things are pretty tough for my little man to deal with when it comes to the toilet. So, this card was to give him some encouragement. I also printed the image out super huge so that he can color it and make it into a chart to record when some of the things he needs to "do" gets done. I will spare you the dirty details. :) I colored Jude and his toilet with my watercolor markers and Copics. The sentiment

It’s a beautiful day on Long Island! No humidity, the sun is shining, and my husband took the day off from work…so I am going to make this short and sweet! I recently got a couple of new (to me) sets from Bombshell Stamps . Two of them are Rose’s Portrait and Banner Sayings . I used both of these to make the card I am sharing with you today. I used my “triple threat” mix of colored pencils, watercolor markers and Copics to color my focal image in. My kids love this set. They have asked me to stamp it out for them, so they can color it too. I think part of the reason is because her name is Rose, like their late grandmother.  I am looking forward to coloring her in a lot of different ways. I can see so many options for her makeup! I used a stencil from The Crafter’s Workshop for my background. Colored with Distress Inks. It’s a simple card, but it’s pretty. That lovely portrait has such an impact, that you don’t need a lot of “fluff.” That’s all for today! I am going o

Howdy Bombshell Fans! Today I am sharing the Latest Bombshell Stamps Sketch Challenge. Did you know that this month is Bombshell's 5th Anniversary? We want to celebrate in a BIG way! There's lots going on at the forum, so please be sure to stop by and join in the festivities! Here's the sketch that our always-fabulous Kaptain Kathi came up with for this month. I flipped the sketch around and used a few less layers. I just got FOUR new (to me) sets in the mail the other day, so I was totally excited and overwhelmed! I had a hard time choosing which set to use! I decided to go with Girl's Ruin . The pinks look so much better in person...I am not sure why they photographed looking so different from each other. Ahhh, the colors are better here. Not perfect, but better. How great does she and her shoes look all glittered up? I wish I had them for myself! After I glittered the shoes, I decided that  really liked the white on top. So I used a few pale blue Copics

Happy August! It's time for a new Desert Islands Crafters Challenge . And this time, we are sponsored by Mayzy Art . I had a very hard time choosing an image to work with, because there are SO many and they are all fabulous! Also, this itinerary has been created by our very own Trudie. Here it is. 1. Stripes 2. Spots 3. Flag/Bunting 4. Red 5. Sprays/Mists 6. Layers 7. Texture 8. Humor 9. Background Image 10. Something that Moves I went with Fairy Meri. She is so pretty, and I loved her outfit and wings. I used numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10. I went with a skin tone that I don't use too often, but I love. I thought it really suited her. I colored her completely with my pencils. And I added some very pretty glitter to her wings for texture. I was thrilled to find my paper. It perfectly matched the way I colored Meri, and it almost looked like she was camouflaged when I added her on. Which, I have found, fairies often prefer to be. So I pop dotted her so