So, I woke up this morning and opened the door to head to Portland and teach classes, and look what greeted me.
Maybe to some of you this isn't that unusual, but in Oregon, in April...What in the world? This is crazy! Anyway, I headed to The Peddler's Pack with beautiful snow falling for a GREAT day of classes.
These ladies are enjoying the Texture Tiles Sampler Class...they look very focused, don't they.
You can't tell very well from the picture how big that pile of class instructions is, but in a four hour class there is alot to tell.
Now this is what I LOVE to see!!! A happy, smiling face, and inky, messy fingers.
Aren't they beautiful!?! Yes, I mean the faces, and the projects. What a great bunch of ladies! If you scroll up to the top of these class photos, look for the lovely lady in the red shirt...that's Michele. Bless her heart, Michele stayed between classes and helped me clean up from the first class and get things out for the next. I owe her big time. Thanks Michele, and thanks to each of you ladies, it was a joy to spend the day with you.
This fun, distressed tile was created with Embossing Paste and Crackle Paint. It will be part of my Decorative Elements Paste Embossing Class. Every project in that class incorporates my favorite products (Ranger Distress Products) with embossing paste.
Yesterday was a long, but fun day. My husband was playing in a sand volleyball tournament, so the kids and I were on our own for the day. We went to watch my very talented cousin compete in an invitational track meet. Maria (above with my two kids) is now a freshman and gets to compete for her highschool. 
In past years she has competed at the annual Hershey meet in Pennsylvania, and we are looking forward to seeing where her talent takes her in the future. It is really fun to watch her race. She is still healing up from a recent injury, but still ran a very good race, missing first place in the 100m race by only four hundredths of a second. Congratulations Maria!
After sitting in the sun for a fair amount of the day, my kids were exhausted. I didn't even realize until we got home, that Hannah and I were looking a little bit pink. I guess we aren't used to sunshine, LOL.
Stampin' Cat Studio loaned me a new stamp set from Kodomo Inc. to try out, and the designs are just beautiful. After cutting up my background piece to make this card, I still have lots of beautiful paper left to make more projects. I love how the stamp that I decided to use matches their beautiful ribbon that I just happened to have. Clearly I love that particular design.
I finally got around to creating another Hexagon book. This one is actually quite similar to the first one, except that I fixed my previous problems of the hinges being to loose. This one can actually be hung up, tossed around, opened and closed without falling apart. I used silk ribbon for the hinges this time, and used three interlocking "hinges" for more stability.
I painted the silk ribbon with the metallic paint dabbers, making them a perfect match for the painted backgrounds. It also ended up being a great match for the nails. I will definately try this again. The ribbon is still flexible when dry and will hold it's shape a little bit. It definately changes the texture of the silk, but I was pleased with the result. It was exactly what I needed in this case. Oh, and isn't that a cute little flower image? It's from my new favorite stamp set, Nottinghill, by 7 Gypsies. Every single image in the set is a winner. I LOVE it. 
