Welcoming July with Open Arms!

Hi There!  Its July, can you believe it? Summer is flying by - here in my neck of the woods we're just finally getting the taste of it!! 

Much of June looked this:

Ominous skies looming over head and blowing in quite quickly.  This would happen all throughout the day off and on, day and night.  For the last two throughout June. Boo.

With this to follow:

Sheets of hard rain, along with high winds and hail at times, would come from those skies, lasting in various time frames.  Leaving pools of water and messes everywhere.  Heat and humidity would come after.  Just when you thought it was safe to go and do something - another wave would come in. Sigh.....

To say we've been cooped up would be an understatement.  We've dealt with terrible storms off and on for a couple weeks, horrendous winds, flash flood warnings, and it goes on.  The farm fields around our house did indeed flood - poor farmers, our ceilings sprung leaks, kennels are slop holes - poor dogs, and our basement is flooded as well.  Good thing its really not used since our house is a 100+ year farm house and the floors down there are dirt - yes dirt! - Its a mess. 

But with all messes and yuck - you find the good, right? 

In between storms this happened:

My boy has been holding it down at a new job and really lovin' the fact he is earning his own income.  When we were out strolling around town one day after dropping his sis off at softball practice he surprised me by taking me out for an ice cream!  It was so lovely to spend time with my almost 17 year old on a date. :)

And of course there has been oodles of crafting going on since we haven't been able to get out much!

Lots of ScrapFX chippies were used on this creation along with a stencil on the canvas.  Other than that she is made up of oodles of bits and pieces of found items that had been laying around my space for far too long!

I showed you a sneaky peek of this little Fairy Art Doll creation in my last post and since then the reveal was posted the ScrapFX blog so I can share her here now.  Kind of funky and different - totally fun to create.  To get more details on how she was created you can head on over to the full reveal post by clinking here. 

She shares a post with this creation: 

I cannot tell you how much I love the mini ScrapFX chipboard pieces!!  They really are so versatile for all sorts of crafty projects.  You should seriously put a bug in your favorite crafty store's ear about carrying ScrapFX products!!  Its really very easy for them to get started!

A mixed media canvas based on one of my favorite songs I used to sing to my kiddos when they were itty bits!!  To see the full reveal of this creation I'd love for you to go here and let me know what you think. 

Well that is all for today, I'll be back again soon as I've so much to share now that our internet is up consistently with sunny skies in the forecast for some days!!  Hooray!  Bring on summer please. :)

Take good care and have wonderful Mondays!

Its a Girl!!

No I haven't been hiding any secrets from y'all.  There aren't any bundles of joy blessing this household....we're too far on the side of teendom to be starting anew - ha!  I still have oodles of fun creating for those friends and family members just starting out though - and who am I kidding??  Its just plain fun to play with baby themed stuff sometimes in general, right?! ;) 

To deck out this stork I used some fluid acrylics on the body and then roughed it up a bit with my finger while the paint was still wet to give it a bit of texture making it look perhaps a little fuzzy. The rest of the body was colored with some gel pens - easy peasy.

Like this cutie lil' stork from ScrapFX.  This month's releases were all about the itty bits - you know bundles of joy.  Perfect timing for me since a GF just had a cutie puh-tootie girlie.  Oh my is she ever adorable.  Gave me a bit of baby fever when I went to visit and then I came back to my senses LOL.  Its always good to know you can visit whenever you want and give the baby back at the end of the day!! Just sayin'. 

Normally I'm not one to leave my chippies naked - I just don't do that look well, but since there were so many colors/patterns going on in the card itself the sentiments really didn't need to be altered up - so bare chippies it was.  I did outline the word girl with a white gel pen because it seemed like it was the thing to do.

I set about making her a card.  I'm all about ramping up my skills these days and went with a side step card.  I know for some this type of card is old school - for me this was the first one I'd ever done!!  I'm totally hooked and can't wait to make more.  What types of cards have you made?  Do you any ideas for me to try?  I'll share directions on how I did this soon - I have to figure out the best way how.

And since this is a post about girlie things I figure I'll leave you with a sneaky peek of my upcoming ScrapFX project which happens to be of a girl:

Here I've had a ton of fun putting some of the new mini chippies from ScrapFX to use along with some large butterfly wings to create a whimsical artdoll!!  Oh yeah - cannot wait to share next Wednesday!

I'm quite smitten with this lil' sweetie and can't wait to show you all of her - she might look a little a different by next week but this is her so far.   

Alrighty sweetie peeps, that is all for today.  Make it a beautiful day no matter what you face!

10 Things on the 10th

Hey sweet peeps!  I was browsing the internet today and I happened upon Shimelle Laine's blog.  She had a post for today called 10 Things.  The idea is to create a post on the 10th of every month sharing 10 Things.  I thought that might be something fun to try and what's fab-u-lous is it doesn't have to be scrappy related.... any ten things go.  I don't share a whole lot of stuff here other than my creations, but I am hoping to get a wee bit better about that in the New Year.  This may be a fun way to incorporate and share other aspects of my life here with all you.

So here's my ten for today.  I decided to do my last top creation recap and share my favorite mixed media heavy projects from 2011.

 

 Reach High for the Stars - This is a canvas created for Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.  Each month (just about) last year I made a step-by-step piece for a tutorial article.

Art Doll - This sweet little doll is hanging out on a shelf in my creative space.  I loved using all the bits and pieces that brought her together.

You Are Loved - This tag holds some journaling on the back as part of my Attitude of Gratitude mini album I created in November while following along with Tessa's Attitude of Gratitude posts at Perfectly Precocious and Art Everyday Month at the Creative Everyday blog.  I love this stamp and have had fun decking this girl out in many different ways.  Mists, watercolors, and paints are my best friends for coloring stamps these days - add in a touch of paper piecing and I'm a happy girl!

Right Now - This is prolly my most favorite art journal page eva'!!  Well up to this point at least, LOL.  It all came together after a not so fab start - so great when that happens, right?

A Home - Another canvas piece for my article series.  The texture on this one makes me giddy and I have a hard time not putting my hands on it!  Good thing its hung higher up on the wall, hehe.

Enjoy the Journey - This is a necklace my sweet friend's gorgeous daughter wears from time to time.  Her bedroom theme is Curious George so I always have a blast finding little things with monkeys I can make for them.  I know a lot of people smoosh their bottlecaps before using them but I really love to keep them in tact and fill them up.  They make terrific embellishments.

Always in my Heart - I had to include this page because its so dear to me for many reasons.  This precious, beautiful young lady will always hold a place in my heart as a daughter of sorts.  The story of our journey is well documented on this page and looking at it I'm amazed at how much I wrote - so not typically me.  I also have a soft spot for this page because its the first background I ever created to build a LO up on.  I'd use goops and such to add elements, but never the base.  

I have no good clue what I titled this - but I adore it.  I made the little dresses out of clay and delighted in hanging them up on the little clothesline. 

To the Moon & Back - Since my son was little we've always said love you to the moon and back so it seemed fitting to make him a wall hanging - at 15 we don't say it quite as much ; ) - every once in awhile though and it warms this mama's heart.  Lots of fun layers here and gotta love a paper towel roll rocket!!

I Think I Can - A simple ATC showing off my new favorite chipboard (and doilies - I seriously canNOT get enough of LeeAnn's doilies) from The Chip Chop Shop , a love of clouds and all things shimmery.  Oh and don't forget the tar gel edge - LOVE that stuff!!!

So that's my 10 things.  Here's to hoping I remember to do this next month, LOL.  What 10 things can you share today?