Thoughts for Thursday w/ Artwork

“What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? ”

—Mary Ann Evans (pen name George Eliot; 1819-1880), novelist

I love this quote. I know, I say that about all the quotes I post on TFT's and throughout the blog, but it's true... quotes and thoughts are not going to make it here unless I really like them :) I read this quote the other day and thought, "gee, that's so true... or at least it should be". Am I guilty of not helping someone along the way? Am I looking out for me and only me? I really don't want to answer yes to either of these questions.

Today I was thinking of things that I can do to make life easier for my sweet husband. (I'm home now mostly full time. I still work PT outside of the home and run our business from the house, and am still adjusting to this role.) A couple of the things I thought of is to have dinner ready when he comes home from work (or at least on it's way) and things basically picked up and kept tidy at home so that he doesn't have to worry about these things after a long day at the office. He works hard and shouldn't be burdened with tons of extras at home. (Goodness knows, I have a pretty nice "honey do" list anyway, lol!) I know that may sound silly, retro, or 50's mentality to some, but I think it's just a couple small things I can do to lessen the load of someone I love.

What is something YOU can do to lessen the load of someone else? I would love to hear!

Inky Smiles!

Erin


{Artwork}
I made a slew of these nifty little 3x3 "cards" for a Valentine's book that I m making with some girls in a swap. They were super fun and super easy to do.

Papers are CTMH, Stamps are CTMH, Ribbon is American Crafts, Brads are probably CTMH (they are all mixed together so who knows!)

I used the Quickutz Nesting dies to cut the scalloped circle and then ran it back through to emboss a circle around the inner edge. This was my first sample.. I replaced the scalloped circle on it once I had it just right. :)

Inky Smiles!

Garden Song

More digi scrapping... this is the layout we made in Lesson 2 of Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rocking with Photoshop class. It was soooo fun to make and I am sooo ready for SPRING!

Inky Smiles!

MMMM Summer Fun

It is sooooo dang cold here still! It's snowing AGAIN tonight and "they say" it's just starting!!! We had snow yesterday and will have it AGAIN on Friday and possibly AGAIN on Sunday! WOW! This is FAB-U-LOUS for snow pack in the mountains and water supply for this year, but, MAN, I am tired of being COLD.

So..... I thought I'd scrapbook a couple of summer pages to try to warm up. I am still COLD, but I feel more cheerful about it!

This is a 2 page digi layout of my sweet baby, Sadie, and my two darling nieces, Megan and Jaylee. Sadie LOVES to chase the water from a hose. She will whine and howl when you're watering the lawn/flowers/garden until you completely DOUSE her with the hose. She is the funniest thing to watch... she attacks and chases the water. If it's just a trickle she will look at you with her sweet puppy eyes until you put it on full blast. It doesn't matter where she is in the yard... once she hears the water turn on she is on that hose!

{Click on photo for a larger view}

Most supplies are from the free {HUGE} digi kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs that I received in Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rockin' Photoshop class. The torn paper template is by K. Pertiet. The circle template is from Jessica Sprague.

The journaling reads, "Oh the joys of summer... Playing at Uncle Brent and Aunt Erin’s house with Saidie and the water hose. There’s nothing like a spray down and a soak and a roll in the soft green grass."

MMMM Summer Fun!

It is sooooo dang cold here still! It's snowing AGAIN tonight and "they say" it's just starting!!! We had snow yesterday and will have it AGAIN on Friday and possibly AGAIN on Sunday! WOW! This is FAB-U-LOUS for snow pack in the mountains and water supply for this year, but, MAN, I am tired of being COLD.

So..... I thought I'd scrapbook a couple of summer pages to try to warm up. I am still COLD, but I feel more cheerful about it!

This is a 2 page digi layout of my sweet baby, Sadie, and my two darling nieces, Megan and Jaylee. Sadie LOVES to chase the water from a hose. She will whine and howl when you're watering the lawn/flowers/garden until you completely DOUSE her with the hose. She is the funniest thing to watch... she attacks and chases the water. If it's just a trickle she will look at you with her sweet puppy eyes until you put it on full blast. It doesn't matter where she is in the yard... once she hears the water turn on she is on that hose!

{Click on photo for a larger view}

Most supplies are from the free {HUGE} digi kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs that I received in Jessica Sprague's Now We're Rockin' Photoshop class. The torn paper template is by K. Pertiet. The circle template is from Jessica Sprague.

The journaling reads, "Oh the joys of summer... Playing at Uncle Brent and Aunt Erin’s house with Saidie and the water hose. There’s nothing like a spray down and a soak and a roll in the soft green grass."

Thoughts for , errr, Friday :)

I am a slacker on Thoughts for Thursday... truth is, this week I have been a busy girl.

Ready for the excuse list? LOL! J/K! Seriously, though... I've been cleaning my studio (it's a royal heap again), and going through financial files for taxes... ewwwwww..., working at my "day" job, trashing the old Stamper Storage store and completely reprogramming it to a new shopping cart (because the old one just would not work, and you can't launch a store when the shopping cart refuses to work) and painting. I helped my friend, Trish, paint her entire upstairs (going back tomorrow for more fun), and today I started painting my main bathroom.



My main bathroom on the first floor has been a hideous minty toothpaste green for years and years, when I'm in there I feel like Im in a tube of toothpaste, and I finally decided it HAS TO GO, so today I grabbed a bucket of paint from my project in the guest room and slapped some beautiful milk chocolate colored paint on a wall to see if I'd like it. I am going to repaint anyway..might as well try a color I already had, and if it worked then I'm only out elbow grease! Well, it worked... and now I have a partially painted bathroom... it kind of looks like an Andes mint... LOL! Brent wants to strip out all of the caulking and take the big honkin mirror down off the wall (if we can) so we can put a nice frame around it and dress it up a bit. So for now, I have my Andes mint bathroom and I will be happy knowing that it's a work in progress.



Today's "Thoughts for Thursday" is a cool quote from William Longgood, an author and journalist. (Click on his name for more really cool quotes on dreams.)

“ Dreams and dedication are a powerful combination. ”

Sometimes our dreams take a little longer than we planned. Sometimes things get in the way (like that danged shopping cart problem) that are out of our control. When we put a little elbow grease to the wheels and keep on trucking, that's when dreams start to take shape. Without dedication, dreams go nowhere.

Here's to your dreams coming true!

Inky Smiles!
Erin

Sweet Summer Digi Layout & Polar Bear RAK Winner

Today was my first day of my new digital class "Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop" with Jessica Sprague. I have said it before and I will say it again, I LOVE digital scrapbooking! Here's this week's lesson's layout. (Click on the image to view it larger.)

Elements are from the course kit including items from JSprague, KPertiet, TrishJones & a dude named Jason Gaylor. You can download the cool Valentine's FREE bush set from Jason Gaylor by clicking here: Jason Gaylor Valentine Brush Set.

This LO is not my original design. We all made the same basic LO in Lesson 1 and added our own personal touches.



{POLAR BEAR RAK WINNER}

The winner of the Polar Bear RAK is: Scrappernic

You can view her warm fuzzy slippers by clicking here: Moments2Treasure

Nic, pop me your mailing address and I will send you some goodies!

Inky Smiles!
Erin

PS... It's another Polar Bear Day! We're getting dumped on with snow today... it looks like a new 4-5" already out there! WOOOT!

Velvet Love - Valentine's Card {and no stamping}

I picked up some Adirondack Dimensional Pearls paint (Ranger Ink) at Robert's Craft yesterday afternoon. I started out with a different idea for a card, but this is what I ended up with this afternoon. LOL!

I put a few globs of Cranberry (it's actually a fuschia/pink) ADP on a plate, dropped in a few drops of water and swirled around with a brush, then brushed it onto white cardstock. It's nice and thick and makes a cool pearly glaze. I had some left on the brush, so I flicked it and splattered the paper for a different effect. It's kind of cool. I think I need more practice with playing around with the stuff, but it's fun!


Supplies:
Cardstock: CTMH, Archivers
Velvet Thickers: American Crafts
Ribbon: Offray, American Crafts
Metal: CTMH
Other: ADP, Stickles (both Ranger Ink), Sandpaper, ATG Adhesive, American Crafts Dimensional Adhesive squares

Utah Forecast.... Great, If You're A Fat Polar Bear

There was a headline in one of our papers yesterday... "Utah Forcast - Great if you're a fat polar bear."
See this link: http://www.sltrib.com/weather/ci_7996853

LOL! It is TRUE, TRUE, TRUE.

Yesterday morning I woke up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit AND I had to haul my polar bear bum outta bed and go to work... I would have stayed in bed, but today was my "one day a week at work"... uggggh. (This - and recovering from Wed night's church event - is why I missed yesterday's Thoughts for Thursday.)


I do not know what it was this morning, but I put the dog out, let her back in, and crawled back in my polar bear cave. Today I am staying home papercrafting in my warm fuzzy slippers and fat pants. (Yes, I am a fat polar bear, but a wimpy fat polar bear, see the cute little bears on my pants? HEHE! I have blue fuzzy slippers, too, but didn't want to crawl into the closet to fetch them... PINK will have to do today... )

Inky (Fat Polar Bear) Smiles!

Erin

PS.. Want a polar bear RAK? Post a comment with a link to a pic of your feet in warm slippers or jammies and I will draw a winner on Sun night and send someone a treat from my scraproom :) Ohhhh, I have a small assortment fun goodies here... :)

Elegant Floral Card - for Sketch Challenge {008}

Simple, yet elegant card based on the sketch {008} . It's sharp and clean and screams feminine to me.

Techniques - 2 step stamping/2nd Generation stamping, cuttlebug embossing.
Stamps: Elegant Floral-CTMH, For Every Occasion - CTMH
Inks: CTMH
Other: Cuttlebug Textile folder, Stickles-icicle

This card is a simple and fast card. Once I had the colors picked out the whole thing took maybe 10-15 minutes in production, well, plus a little dry time for the Stickles.

Sketch Challenge {008}

I'm in the middle of a huge project for church... we're having our quarterly Enrichment night and I've planned a super fun Spiritual Spa Spectacular. We'll have 5 - 10 minute mini classes, a Keynote Speaker and some yummmmmmy goodies. It's going to be a BLAST!

Tonight I am working on thank you notes for our class presenters/speakers and used this simple sketch to plan the card. I'm pretty much sticking to the basic sketch, but it's turning out soooo darling!

Here's your challenge for this week. Use this very simple sketch and make something lovely! Use something shiny, add some texture and some froofroo and have a little fun! Bling out a simple sketch with the fine details.

I will post my card as soon as it's dry (or tomorrow) :) Feel free to leave a link in the comments to your gallery or card! I'd love to see what you come up with!


Inky Smiles!

Digi Enabler Alert:ScrapGirls Sale

Scrap Girls has the most fabulous sales! I love sharing them with you.... addiction loves company , right? Oh wait... that's "misery loves company", but digi scrapping is definitely NOT misery. In fact, I absolutely love it! It's super fast, clean and relatively easy.

Their current sale is 18.7% off almost everything in the Scrap Girls Boutique! SWEET!! Sale ends January 21st at midnight. Click the link below to start shopping!

Shop Scrap Girls now!

Our Chipboard RAK winner is...

Brent drew a name & the winner is:

Kelli said...

congrats on the 30,000! Love the blog!

January 11, 2008 12:44 PM

Congratulations Kelli! Please send me an email with your address and I will pop this in the mail to you this week!

Inky Smiles!

Thoughts for Thursday and Thirty Thousand Hits - RAK RAK RAK !

“ Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. ”

- Mark Twain [Samuel Clemens] (1835-1910),
humorist, essayist, novelist

This month, go out and do something that you've always wanted to do! Do something for yourself and do it without regret! Take a class, learn a new sport, make a new friend....

Inky Smiles!

{RAK}
My counter says over 30,000 hits!!!! WOOOOOT! I think I need to give something away! How about some chip board elements from American Crafts?

I have a little Holiday House Chipboard Summer container choc full of fun colorful paper treats waiting for a new home in some lucky person's STASH!

Leave a comment on this post and I will have Brent draw a name on Sunday for a lucky winner!

Inky Smiles!

{love} U

I love altering things and I love working in our woodshop. This weekend Brent and I spent all day Saturday working on InkStaks & RibbonStaks. We had a variety of 10 to build just on Saturday and it was a super long day. We left the woodshop at 11:15 pm and were just exhausted. While Brent was working on parts of the Staks that require no help from me, I played around with some tools and scraps in the shop. I don't normally wear jewelry in the shop, but we had a baptism to attend in the middle of it all and I didn't take off the necklace when I changed back into my grubbies. LOL!


{Love U} Wood Block
This project is made from a 7.25"x5.5" piece of scrap pine which I drilled a 2 1/8" hole in with the drill press. I also drilled out a 1 7/8" circle from scrap hardboard to "fill the hole". It stands on a flat surface propped up by a peg (cut off dowel) inserted into a hole I drilled in the back.

I painted the wood black with acrylic paint from Apple Barrel and let it dry thoroughly. I cut a heart from scrap paper (fold in half then cut) and then opened the heart and traced onto solid Red Archivers brand cardstock.

I pulled out my Modge Podge (glossy) and slathered up the back of the heart and stuck it to the painted wood. I let that dry for a few minutes to hold the heart in place and then rubbed {love} with American Crafts rub ons. Then I slathered the whole thing up with Modge Podge and worked out the bubbles. (When working with Modge Podge, sometimes you have to gently rub out bubbles when paper gets a little too wet.) I let the whole thing dry for about 15-20 minutes and then pulled out my collection of silver metal embellishments and went to town hammering in these conchos and eyelets (CTMH, Making Memories) into the paper and wood.

The "U" circle is made by covering the 1 7/8" hardboard circle with white cardstock, then adding glitter and slathering the edges with Crystal Effects and sprinkling on Beadazzles beads and glitter. I cut out a small U to fit the circle and used a bit of magic to float the circle in the hole.

Inky Smiles!

Thanks Korin!

Have you seen Korin's (owner and designer - Sweet N' Sassy Stamps) newest toy? Her sweet husband ordered a RibbonStak for her for Christmas! Pop on over to her personal blog, Inky Doodle, and check out her ribbon stash! And while you're there, link on over to Sweet N' Sassy Stamps and pick up a couple of her newest hand drawn stamp creations!

I'm dying to get my hands on Pond Pals!

Inky Smiles!

Let's Get Together Recipe Tin (posted AGES ago on CTMH boards)

I wanted to get something new and fun up here on the blog this weekend, but we had a variety of 10 different InkStaks to build this weekend and I just didn't have time to finish my idea (YET).

Anyway, over the past couple of months I have received several email requests for a pic of this tin that I made waaaaaaaaaaay back in June/July and showed very briefly on the CTMH BB's. (The original post dissappeared because when I resigned from CTMH, they deactivated my account and all posts associated with my account went to web post Heaven.... or wherever old web posts go when they die.) I thought I had posted it here on the blog, but I guess I never did... So, here's a photo of the Let's Get Together lunch tin.

Papers, inks, stamps are CTMH. Ribbons are CTMH, American Crafts & Offray. Buttons and other embellishments are from various vendors. I stamped flowers on acetate in versamark ink and then sprinkled white embossing powder on the inked images, heated, cooled, and carefully cut out the flowers. I don't have a pattern for the top of the tin. I carefully traced it onto scrap paper and made my own template that way.


I made a very basic "measurement conversion chart" which I adhered to the inside of the tin lid and the recipe cards are from a CTMH kit. This was a LOT of fun to make!!!

Stay tuned... I'm working on a fun Valentine's Day project today that involves a drill press in the wood shop, paint, paper, beads, etc. I am covered in paint and I think it's gonna be fun!

Inky Smiles!
Erin

Photo RePost : Merry & Bright Bind It All Book

As promised, here's the repost of the Merry and Bright Bind It All Book full picture.

Wishing you a WONDERFUL New Year!!!

Erin :)