I've been playing with chipboard tiles again. This is just a peek at 4 of 16 tiles included in my latest Texture Tiles Sampler class board. This one had a bird theme, and includes 11 different bird images. If you go the the Texture Tiles class photo link to the left you can see the entire Sampler.
So, moving on to a completely different subject. I currently have something in my refrigerator that I never imagined I would be storing. My daughter came home from Kindergarten today with a plastic bag in hand. "Look what I have Mom!", she yelled...(me) "What is that?" It was an octopus. Apparently they each got an octopus to study with a magnifying glass (which is pretty cool), but now I have a dead octopus named Felina in my refrigerator. Yes, my daughter named her dead octopus, and was quite disappointed to find out we wouldn't be able to keep it forever. Life lesson for the day...dead things eventually rot and stink. Pleasant, huh.
Ok, moving on. Tommorrow is the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Portland, so I am trying to get myself together and ready for an early morning tomorrow. It's always fun to be surrounded by so many ladies (and a few men) with similar interests. I'll try to get some good pictures for my next post.

Enjoy something beautiful today

Bud
Originally uploaded by * Minette

I look out my window this morning and the sun is shining, the grass is green, the birds are singing, and new buds and shoots are popping out all over the place. It promises to be a beautiful day. Now just in case you aren't lucky enough to be living in
a place that is beautiful
and sunny today, I thought you might like something beautiful to look at. These are not necessarily "nature" beauty, but are definately full of beauty. Here are the links two two websites full of beautiful pictures celebrating design, color, and style.
http://www.printpattern.blogspot.com/
www.ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog
Oh, and as a bonus, here is a link to another great website with stories and pics:
http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/
Also, I am working on online photo albums for my class project pics. I've included a few sneak peeks to the left. I will be working on adding to those and adding albums for more classes in the coming weeks.
Find something beautiful to soak in today...for me, it looks like it will be the sun.

Today has been a beautiful, fun day. It started out with one of my favorite things...church. I got to play the keyboard and sing with our worship team today. This mornings' worship service was just one of those sweet, beautiful times that I wish would last forever.

After church I went to a friends house for lunch and to help her with a little project. Every now and then we help go through each others closets, and do kind of a "What Not to Wear" thing. Everything that doesn't fit well anymore, is worn out, or out of date, or hasn't been worn in the last year goes. It is so freeing. And sometimes we have unhealthy emotional attachments to our clothing, and just need someone else to say, "What are you thinking?" Now that both of our closets have been purged it's time for a little shopping, isn't it?

Thank you to each of you who have visited my blog in the last couple of days, especially those who have left comments. It has been fun to have some extra traffic around the blog. A special welcome to those visiting from the Ranger Ink Link and from the link on Lauren Ferguson's blog. If you have a blog too, and leave me a link in the comment section I will come visit your blog.

I had a great time with my class yesterday. It was a jam packed class, both in terms of participants, and the amount we got accomplished. We did 6 cards with various Fluid Chalk Ink techniques in our two hour class. It was a lot to fit in, but these ladies were so great. We had a really fun time.

One little change in upcoming classes. I had a Paste Embossing Class scheduled for April 5th, but I was going to be using Ranger Memory Glass Frames for one of the projects, and we are not sure that we will be able to get them in time for the class, so we will reschedule that class for a later date. We will be replacing that class with a new class, The Art of Microfine Glitter. The class will include the Wildflower Microfine Transparent Glitter set by Art Institute. We will be working with many different products and techniques. This is a really fun class, and I am thrilled to be offering it with a Microfine glitter set this time.

Prototype

Today I decided to play around with some chipboard triangles. This is the prototype, but I have all kinds of ideas for this little hexagon, so I'm sure you will be seeing similar projects again. I need to refine the process a bit. I guess that is the fun of prototypes. You learn what works and what doesn't, so now the next one will be better. I think that I need a ribbon with a little bit of stretch for added tension so the nails will stay in better. These work, but I have to be kind of careful. The hexagon is held together with 2" finishing nails, which I have discovered have the perfect end to add a rhinestone to. I will be utilizing that idea soon. The clasp is made of grungeboard. The top of the grungeboard is painted with silver Paint Dabbers, hammered with the Tim Holtz Texture Hammer, and embossed with Distress Embossing Powder. The underside is painted with Crackle Paint. The paper is Alpha Blocks from Tim Holtz distressables. I was so excited that this actually worked. If you get the tension right, and your cutting is very exact, you can actually open this up and hang it on the wall using the grungeboard as a hanger. Of coarse, the nail that you take out to fold it up becomes the clasp to hold it closed.
I'm looking forward to a full, fun class tomorrow, so I'd better go pack my things. Good night everyone.

We're back

We have returned from a fun little vacation, and the unpacking begins. Some friends of ours had rented a very nice little chalet at Eagle Crest and weren't able to use it, so we got to enjoy it. It is such a nice place, and we had a great time. We played tennis, swam with the kids, explored Bend, did a

little shopping, and just spent time together. When it was all over we quickly packed up our things and headed out. We were over an hour away when we realized that we had left our coats in the coat closet. Suddenly our trip home became much longer, and (since it was apparently my fault) slightly strained. By the time we got back home again everything was fine, but I was kicking myself most of the way home. Oh, and we developed a brake issue on vacation, so our trip home was also punctuated by the wonderful sound of metal on metal. I think we were all glad to pull into the driveway. Now it's back to the joys of everyday life. In fact, when we arrived back home I took inventory of some things I was thankful for:
*safety *a clean warm house
*sleeping in my own bed
*the kids weathered the extra long trip home with very good attitudes *my husband cracked a joke (which means he is over it now)
*I have Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream to enjoy after supper
*no matter how forgetful I am, God always loves me and understands my weaknesses

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

In celebration of today I thought I would share a cute valentine card. I was looking for the perfect element for my card when I came across these die cuts by Fancy Pants Designs. It just so happened that one of the clock stamps from my It's About Time set by Inque Boutique was just the perfect size for this die cut. The stamp itself is a reverse image, so I stamped it with VersaMark, embossed it with clear embossing powder, then inked over the top of it with Black Soot Distress Ink. I LOVE when things work out perfectly like that. And look at how the heart is right in the center of the hands of the clock. So fun.
I've been having to do without the inspiration of many of my blog buddies this week because most of them are at CHA. Now if you are like me, wishing you were there, so curious to see all of the new stuff. I have come across a couple of websites with some nice peeks at the world of CHA and info. about lots of new products. There are a lot of neat new products.
http://www.craftcritique.com/
http://www.scrapgenie.blogspot.com/
I hope each of you have a wonderful Valentines Day caring for the people you love.

Tea Party at Gongey's

On Saturday we went to the farm. Matt's family owns a grass seed farm, and his parents and grandparents live on the property. His grandma, (who gets called Gongey), is so great with kids, and she loves to host parties. So she invited some of the grandkids

and great-grandkids

for a Valentine Tea Party. It was great! The table was all set up perfectly with cute plates of heart-shaped sandwiches and cheese. Little red strawberry shaped finger jellos, and fun finger foods. After everyone was finished eating, we all moved to the living room for some fun games. Now keep in mind that the children in attendance were 5 years old and under, but they had a great time with the games. Some were a little more difficult for the little ones to grasp than others, but they were all fun. And after each game was over Gongey had little "prizes" for each child to put in their goodie bag. It is just so fun, and I am so privileged that my children get to have these fun little parties. I think Gongey is a pretty special, one-of-a-kind grandma, and my kids are so blessed to have her in their lives.

Yeah! my magazine came!

Finally! I've been waiting for days. The Papercrafts Magazine blog has been talking about the March magazine, and I didn't have mine yet. I have only turned in a couple things to try to get published, so for me it's a huge deal to have something make it into a magazine. The anticipation was killing me. So today when the UPS man pulled up my heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, it was my box complete with two issues of the magazine, my original card, and even some surprise goodies. So here it is. My camera ran out of batteries so I had to scan it in. What this part of the page doesn't show is that the bird is sitting on a little clip, and he swings out on a hidden piece of cardstock to reveal a heart and the word "you". I'm probably more excited about this than I should be, but there is something really fun about seeing something you worked hard to create being enjoyed by so many people. If you want to see the rest of it, you can find it in the JOCM section of the magazine.
Thanks for letting me share with you too.

The Paper Inspired Retreat 2008

Flyers are made, information is being entered into the computer, we are on our way. I'm so excited about how the details of The Paper Inspired Retreat are being pulled together. The website should be ready for registrations to begin very soon. We have a great set of classes, and I can't wait to see who will be joining us for this awesome event. Mark your calendar, and check back to get all the details soon. I will let you know when the registration page is up and running. The only hard part for me is that I will not get to attend any of the other classes, since I will be teaching the whole time. We have some great vendors lined up, and a great team of instructors. I am privileged to be a part of this.
Yesterday was a really fun day. I have a group of friends that have been getting together regularly for a girls night out. The daddys take care of the kids, and we get to just go out and spend time together. Yesterday we went to see 27 Dresses. Somewhat cliche but a very cute movie...nice relaxing entertainment. Then we went out for dinner. It's just always so fun to spend time with these friends...completely unpretentious, you can just be yourself, say whatever you want to say without wondering if they are reading anything into it. I hope all of you are blessed enough to have friends like that. They are a real blessing in my life.