BFB: An Absent So Great & give-away

 by Jane Kirkpatrick. This book is a sequel to A Flickering Light. These books are based on the life of Kirkpatrick's grandmother Jessie.

As the story opens, Jessie Ann Gaebele is eighteen, and is working as an assistant to photographers who have become ill from mercury poisoning. She has left home because of a strong attraction she had for her former married boss.

I love that this is based on a true story, even though Jane added some fictional characters to fill in the blanks of her grandmother's story. My favorite parts of the book are the actual photos take by Jessie and the stories behind each photo. It will make me look at photos (esp old ones) in a whole new light.

If you like history, you will want to read this book to see how an 18 year old female makes it in a "man's" world. You will also learn what becomes of her former boss who was several years older than her and the scandal of what a relationship was like at that time of history.

I haven't read the first book and now want to, to see what happened (even though it is illuded to) for Jessie to have left her home on her own to accomplish her dream of owning her own photography business.

**Would you like to read this book? I have one to give as blog candy. Just leave a message here and I will draw a name around 7 pm CST Wednesday, March 31.

CSAYL: So Many Embossibilities

Hello! Sorry I've been so quiet. Just a lot going on in our lives right now.

This week's challenge is to emboss...dry or heat. I found this image in my stash already embossed in black. I watercolored with markers (haven't done that in a LONG time and loved it) and don't have any idea who makes the image. I used up scraps from Basic Grey that were in my stash and added some buttons to finish it off.

Be sure to stop by the CSAYL blog to see all the "embossibilities" by the DT. Ü

Dirty Challenge

Each month the current and alumni Dirty Girls from SCS have a challenge. It's been a long time since I've been able to play. This month's theme was Bird's and/or Bees with a challenge of no using border punches. You can see what the other girl's created here.

I combined this challenge with Maria's Scrap Pile Challenge here. She also issued the challenge to use a stamp that had not been used yet and to follow a sketch she designed.

I used the bird cage from a Darcie stamp set that I had only inked the birds from. The bird is punched (from scraps) from my NE blogger friend Pam (thanks Pam!). She punched me a gazzillion of these! It's so much fun going thru the envies she sent of different colors. The bird fits perfectly in this cage.

I embossed the cage with colored ink and clear embossing powder. The vintage paper (inspired by all the vintage cards Pam has been showcasing on her blog) is by K & Company.

CSAYL-Inspiration

Good morning! I will be the hostess for CSAYL every third week of the month. For my first challenge I chose this photo from Pottery Barn. I
love their stuff! Don't have any, but still drool when I get their e-mail updates.

My challenge this week is to create a Christmas card with the following challenges inspired by this photo:

1. leave white space (very hard for me to do!
2. use colors shown in the photo
3. must have a bird on your project (cardinal, partridge, whatever)

I would love to have all of you play along. Be sure to leave a link on the CSAYL blog and please let me know if you played, by posting a comment here.

For my card I chose to first emboss my background panel. I love the colors in the picture above. I chose to use SU!'s Ruby Red, Old Olive, More Mustard, and white.

Lucky Me, a Notepad and SpRiNG Blocks

I am so excited to share my first projects with you. Each month Tombow will be partnering with another company for the Design Team to create with. This month it is Imaginisce. I received a package full of goodies from their line Lucy Bird (as well as 2 other kits!). Oh my, so much fun and such pretty spring colors! Thank you so much Imaginisce!

My first project uses scrap wood left over from when I used to teach woodcraft classes. I have a set of blocks that are painted and say "autumn" and have had this idea for some time to use paper and letters cut with my Cricut. This was the perfect chance to do that. (you can click on the image for a larger view)

For the "s", "i", and "g", I used Cricut's new Songbird cartridge. My friend Terry had just gotten this in the mail the day we decided to get together and craft. We had so much fun making these blocks. (She used more vintage designs which turned out darling.) I don't remember the cartridges used for the "p" and "n". If you are really wanting to know, I can find out, as they were all Terry's cartridges.

I used Tombow's Mono Aqua Liquid glue to adhere the block paper and letters. This stuff is awesome! I love how it lets you move the paper around a bit to get it just right before it dries.

My next project was creating a notepad using scraps from the Imaginisce papers. I also used silk flowers and a fun puffy sticker.

and last is this card for St. Patrick's Day:

                         

I am still learning how to use Tombow markers and their blending pens, but I think she turned out pretty cute anyway.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Be sure to wear green.

Why do you never iron a 4 leaf clover?

You don't want to press your luck! Ü

CSAYL 43 Out of the Box

For today's challenge we were to make a card that was NOT square. I won this Close To My Heart circle card kit from PaperCrafts awhile back, so it was perfect to get out and play. There are cards that you add sticker ornaments and doodads as well as scored envelopes to put together. I added ribbon to the ornament and dimensionals to pop up the reindeer sticker. These are so much fun to play with! You will definitely be seeing more of them.

Be sure to check the CSAYL blog for more inspiration from the DT.

14-Carrot Friend and Creative Call

I love how this tall card turned out. It fits into a business sized envelope. Images are from Inky Antics.

Tombow Creative call....want a chance to win Tombow adhesives or markers? Go here to read the details.

Balancing Chick

I am going to keep posting spring/Easter projects in hopes of chasing the 60% chance of snow on Tuesday away!

This afternoon we will be attending a scholarship recognition reception for the county scholarships. We have no idea which one (or hopefully oneS) Benjamin will be receiving.

Easter Blessings

It's finally starting to look (and feel) like spring around here. The snow is melting, the temps slowly rising and it's raining.

This card is made with another of Inky Antics fun Easter images. Basic Grey's "Lemonade" paper and some pretty little flowers in my stash are added to this Easter card.

Gift Challenge #1 - Card Purse

Today is the first of our gift challenges for CSAYL. I had planned to make as many cards as would fit into this box, but after I made the box and saw how thin it was and that I might only be able to get 3 or 4 cards in it, I decided it would be more fun to make one card and add two Hershey candy bars and make it more of a gift. This box was so easy to make and the step by step directions with pictures make it even better for visual people like me. PLUS there is a video tutorial all on SCS.

I used some Basic Grey Christmas paper that I still have from a couple of years ago and Close To My Heart stickers that I won from Papercrafts in a blog giveaway in January.

Play along and win a chance at being a guest designer with us. Details on the CSAYL blog.

Easter Chick

I apologize for these cards being so dark. I had taken the pictures and mailed the cards off to Inky Antics, before I had a chance to check them all to make sure they were okay.

All the papers are from Lemonade except the Turquoise and I don't remember where I got it.

Lemonade Easter

This bright paper from Basic Grey's Lemonade line is perfect for a cheery Easter card.

My exciting news

YAY! I can finally share. Joanna Wallace who works with Tombow asked if I would be on their Design Team! I am sooooo excited! I use Tombow products with ALL my papercrafts. Tombow will be partnering with a papercrafting company each month and we will get to create with their fun products. Imaginisce is the company whose product I will get to play with (along with Tombow) for the month of March. You can read about the other DT members on the Tombow blog.

To introduce ourselves she asked the DT to create a project that shows our style and a bit about ourselves. I have had this "family" project in my head for a long time! Ever since I made the Joy and Home project way back when.

I LOVE altering things and coasters are one of my favorite to play with. I used MONO Aqua liquid glue and permanent mono-adhesive. The liquid glue is dual tipped and I used the broad tip (that has an applicator on it that I love) to spread the glue on the coaster and then adhere the paper. This allows you to move the paper around a bit and get it just like you want before it dries which is a very nice feature.

I used the mono-adhesive for the alphabet. The letters were cut with Doodletype Cricut cartridge 3 times with cardstock and once with patterned paper to give a chipboard look. This is one of my favorite techniques to do.

This project shows a few of my favorite things: family, buttons, vintage rick

rack, brads, alphabet, ribbon, dew drops, coasters, using my Cricut, crocheted flowers (I made), pretty papers and jump rings. I also love to distress things with ink. Because of the brighter colors and white I used a caramel ink that still shows some distressing, but doesn't overdo it.

The "il" is kinda blah compared to the other coasters and I'm thinking I might need to redo it. I'll be sure to let you see it if I do.

The pretty papers are from My Mind's Eye "Be Loved" line. I love the pretty spring colors.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my excitement with you all.

Have a wonderful day!

PS: the colors in this project go with this challenge that I entered as well.

Thinking Spring

As a new layer of snow covers the ground this morning, I am forcing spring thoughts into my head! Snow is pretty, but I am SOOOO ready for spring, for the trees to start budding and the flowers to begin poking their heads through the ground.

So I am going to start showing Easter/spring cards/projects and hopefully that will bring spring weather a bit quicker our way. Ü

This card was made with Inky Antics' Basket Chick and Medium Happy Easter.

I know I promised some news today, but it needs to wait a bit. I think I will still be sharing this week, so be sure to pop in each day. Ü