My Favorite Things

For My Father

2010-08-10T20:03:00.001-07:00

My Father is my hero. He is kind and generous, and has always been there for my family. He does it all very quietly, and does not ask for gratitude or thanks. Yet, he deserves all of the gratitude and thanks in the world. He took care of my mother when she was ill until she passed away, always patient and kind, even when it had to be incredibly hard on him. He is always there for me when I need him. I love him so much! I painted my first pastel painting for my Father for Father's Day. To me, the painting represented somewhere beautiful to gaze at and reflect on.

Rick's Shadow Box

2010-07-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

This July was my boss' 30th anniversary with our employer. These days, that is quite an accomplishment with any company. To top it off, Rick is a fantastic boss. To honor the occasion, we had a party, made a silly slide show (which we promised we would not post on You Tube), and I made this shadow box out of Rick's memorabilia. Happy Anniversary Rick!

Paris Mini Collages

2010-03-01T17:51:00.000-08:00

Its been a while since I've posted to my blog, but life seems to have gotten in the way of my finishing all of the creative projects I have on the list of "things I'd like to do". I've finally been able to complete one of those things though...a group of Paris mini-collages using a 7-Gypsies collage board and some fantastic digital collage sheets from the Itkupilli Shop. I had fun putting these mini collages together. I'm showing pictures of each collage separately because they are a little easier to see that way. Enjoy!

Christmas Wreaths

2009-11-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was lucky enough to get to do one of my truly favorite things...spend time crafting with my step-daughter Taryn. She is away at college, and I miss her a lot! The Thanksgiving weekend gave us a chance to hang out, get out the paper and scissors, and have some fun.

Our main project was Christmas wreaths. Though the wreaths look like they would take hours and hours to make, they were really quite simple. I found the instructions on Holly's Charmed Life Blog. All it took was a styrofoam wreath from Michaels, paper, brads, rubber bands, ribbon, a hot glue gun and a some glitter glue. I had already started my wreath, but Taryn finished hers in one evening with time to spare.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Scott

2009-11-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

Thursday is my brother Scott's birthday. (Happy Birthday little brother!) I made him this card using Tim Holtz stamps and embellishments, and a Prima flower. There is also some distress stickles and distress embossing powder going on. I use stickles on just about everything these days. I can't do without it.

Enjoy,

The Great Pumpkin

2009-10-09T20:03:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I bought an artificial pumpkin at Michael's to decorate and use as a centerpiece on our kitchen table. The pictures in this post show the finished pumpkin. I decorated it using leaves I made by stamping them on bazzill paper, embossing them with clear embossing powder, and then inking the edges in black distress ink. I also used lots of Prima flowers, jewels and felt. Finally, I used a vintage Halloween image from one of the CD's I purchased from Luna Girl to make a hanging tag. My plan is to exchange the Halloween image for a Thanksgiving image after Halloween is over.

Enjoy,

Paper Roses

2009-09-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was reading the Studio 490 blog, when I came across the August 4th post about making roses out of grunge paper. I liked the idea of making the roses so much that I got out my Cricut and immediately began to experiment with cutting out different shapes and types of paper to make flowers with. A couple days later, I found the Anais Nin poem Risk that I interpreted to be using a blooming flower as an analogy for taking a chance and risking being hurt in order to live fully and love. The flowers and the poem were the inspiration for the collage I'm posting this evening.

The collage was made using the Rue88 Collection papers by Iron Orchid for Prima. I also used Tim Holtz distress crackle paints, and an image from a CD I bought from Luna Girl containing pre-Raphelite images.

Enjoy!

You Take The Cake

2009-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of several cards I am making with My Favorite Things (no relation to my blog) stamps. I first learned about these stamps by reading the Confessions of a Naptime Scrapper blog, and admiring all of the great cards Kirsten was making using the stamps. This card was made using a birthday set called You Take the Cake.

Enjoy,

Paper Collage With Tim Holtz Products

2009-08-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple weeks I have been watching the Two Peas in a Bucket "Thinking Inking" on-line classes. This collage is the first in a set of three where I am combining all of the techniques I learned in that class and from watching Tim Holtz's videos on YouTube.

For the background piece, I first embossed the corners of an 8x8 piece of chipboard with one of Tim Holtz's stamps. I then painted it with Adirondack paints, and went over it with Distress Crackle Paint.

For the collage, I used a 6x6 piece of scrapbook paper, and embellished it with a tag stamped and embossed using more Tim Holtz stamps, prima flowers, and cut-outs from the remainder of the scrapbook paper. I also attached a couple Tim Holtz metal embellishments as a finishing touch.

The Thinking Inking and Tim Holtz videos are both on YouTube, and are definitely worth watching to learn some new techniques for working with inks, paints and embossing powders.

New Card and Great New Stamp Store

2009-08-16T00:33:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, my spare time has been taken up by working on painting the inside of our house. That chore is finally done (with some pretty nice results), and I'm ready to work on other creative projects again.

I made a new card with one of my favorite "oldie but goodie" stamps this week called "Marlon's Bouquet" by Hero Arts. The paper and embellishments for the card are all Prima.

In keeping with being able to work on some new creative projects, my friend Rebecca took me to a great stamp and paper store in Sacramento, California called The Paper Garden Boutique. The store has been in business for three years, but I had never been there before. I was so impressed with all of the wonderful stamps they had, and all of the beautiful card examples that were on display. We met the owner, Stephanie Nishikawa, and she said they try to have a card on display for every stamp they sell. That is a tall order considering how many great stamps they have. Check out their blog (in my list of blogs I enjoy reading) for some beautiful cards, and visit the store if you're in the Sacramento area. You won't be disappointed.

Cat Cards

2009-07-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Some of my very favorite stamps are my Penny Black cat stamps. I've had them for a few years now, but its always fun to take them out and create some new cards. With this batch of cards, I learned a valuable lesson about Copic Markers and stamping. (This was the first time I'd used my Copic Markers for stamping.) Some inks that are known to be "permanent," such as StazOn, will smear with alcohol based Copic Markers. One of the best inks for use with Copic Markers is Adirondack Ink by Ranger. I found that out after I had made my cards and was searching the web trying to figure out why my stamps had smeared when I had colored them in. Fortunately I was able to work with the grungy look that resulted from using the wrong ink.

Dave and Travis Head for the Hills

2009-07-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things about living in Northern California is being surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers. The pictures in this digital scrapbook page are from a recent fishing trip my husband and son took to a stream in the Sierra Nevada foothills. They had a great time, as can be seen from Travis' pose, even though they didn't catch any fish.

I used Vera Lim's new Woodland Fantasy digital kit to create this page. This is the first layout I've used this kit for, but I know I'm going to be scrapping with it for a long time to come.

Flirty Little Secrets-Anniversary Book

2009-07-05T23:10:00.001-07:00

My parents just celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in early June. My brother and I are very proud to be able to say that our parents have been married for 50 years! For their anniversary, I made them a mini-book with pictures from throughout their 50 years together.

To make the mini-book, I used some of my very favorite scrapbooking products by Prima... a chipboard album, IOD's Flirty Little Secret Papers in digital and physical form, and an abundance of beautiful flowers and bling. Right now, I am going through a stage where I like kind of a grungy look in my scrapbooking, and this mini-album reflects that style. I hope you enjoy it.

Neue Pinakothek Museum

2009-06-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

On our last day in Munich, we spent the afternoon at the Neue Pinakothek Museum. They had some beautiful works of art on display, and it was a nice end to our time in Germany. The pictures on the two scrapbook pages I've posted are some of our favorites from the museum. Dave and I both especially like the impressionist painters, Claude Monet being at the top of our list.

For these last two pages, I used Weeds and Wildflowers digital scrapbook papers.

Salzburg, Austria

2009-06-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

We took the train from Munich to Salzburg, Austria for a day of sightseeing. Salzburg is an ancient city, with the first settlements being traced back to 1500 B.C. Buildings can be found in the city that date back to the 700's A.D. We spent our day in Salzburg touring the fort that overlooks Salzburg, wandering through Old Salzburg, and peeking in on several of the churches. We also saw Mozart's birthplace and home later in life.

As with my other layouts from our Germany trip, I used Meredith Fenwick digital papers.

Dachau Concentration Camp

2009-06-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

The most somber day of our trip to Germany was the day we visited the site of the former Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a eerie feeling to drive through the beautiful forest knowing that in a few moments we would emerge outside of the the gates of Dachau, a place where so much cruelty and horror had occurred.

I gave some thought about whether it was appropriate to publish these pictures on my blog. I decided it is important that people see and remember what happened at Dachau as much as is possible 60 plus years later, especially in today's climate of political correctness where frank discussions about intolerance are sometimes frowned upon.

I realize this is a heavy duty post for a blog that is supposed to be about sharing the things that bring me joy, but every once in a while I may digress some.

Nymphenburg Castle

2009-06-27T23:39:00.001-07:00

One of our days in Munich was spent at Nymphenburg Castle, which was originally the summer home of the King Ludwig the I and his family. While the inside of the castle was spectacular, the best part of the day was spent walking around the beautiful castle grounds.

I used Meredith Fenwick papers for the castle layouts, and Rhonna Ferrar "Urban Junque" embellishments.

Scenes from Munich

2009-06-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

On one of our days in Munich, we visited the Museum of Technology. It was a great place for Dave, since they had entire sections devoted to airplanes, rockets, and pharmacy. (If only they'd had a fishing section.)

That same evening, we visited a hofbrau in Munich that had been a local landmark since the 1300's. We were seated at a table with a couple from Northern Germany, and had a lot of fun conversing with our limited German and their limited English.

I used Meredith Fenwick papers for the museum and countryside layouts. Christina Renee papers were used for the hofbrau layout.

Neuschwanstein Castle

2009-06-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

On our second day in Germany, we took a train ride through Barvaria to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, once the home of Germany's "Mad King Ludwig". The castle and surrounding scenery was breathtaking, as can be seen in the latest pages from our scrapbook.

The layouts were once again made using Meredith Fenwick papers.

Germany Trip

2009-06-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

Last fall, my husband and I traveled to Munich, Germany. During that trip, we were fortunate enough to be able to take the train on day trips all over Southern Germany, and to Salzburg, Austria. We took hundreds of pictures during our time in Germany. After we returned, I quickly realized that it would be impossible to create a traditional scrapbook because I wouldn't be able to narrow down the pictures to a reasonable number. I decided instead to create a digital scrapbook and publish it through one of the on-line services. The result was a beautiful hardcover book memoralizing our trip.

Over the next few days, I'll be publishing the digital scrapbook pages on my blog. I used digital papers by Meredith Fenwick to create most of the pages.

The first group of pages show the town of Rothenburg, Germany. Rothenburg is a quaint German town that has been in existence since the 800's. Some of the streets are still made of cobblestone, and we saw buildings that did indeed date back to the 800's. One of the highlights of the day was climbing to the top of the town hall bell tower and looking out over the valley.

Ship of Dreams

2009-06-22T22:47:00.001-07:00

Over the past few months I've been having some very vivid dreams. They are not always true to life, but they have inspired a streak of creativity. I have found myself writing poetry, and even put together my first digital collage as an accompaniment to one of my poems titled "Ship of Dreams".

I found a wonderful digital scrapbook kit called "Creation 23" at OScraps.com that contained many of the elements used in this collage. The knight and his lady were extracted from a Waterhouse painting included on a CD of beautiful pre-Raphaelite art images from Lunagirl.com.