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!

Happy Easter, a New Sketch, and ScrapFX Chippies

Happy Easter Friends!  What a special day this is.  We'll be heading to my sister-in-laws house in a bit - for now enjoying a peaceful, beautiful start to the day.

After all the eggs are found - kids crashed from sugar - you may want to scrap.  If you do, head over to Skissedilla where Sketch #158 is posted and ready to inspire you. 

Nabon created this sketch and I love all the texture she created just in the sketch alone! 

As I was going through pictures one of my daughter on Cinderella's Carousel in Disney stood out to me - the orientation of the photo didn't go with the sketch's so I flipped the sketch 90 degrees and this is what happened:

Instead of using a large embellie where the car image is on the sketch I went with a photo of the ride sign - the ScrapFX chippies I was sent were perfect for this LO and I had a grand ol' time making them my own!!

I was kind of disappointed I couldn't work in any drips - but alas I couldn't see how they would enhance the look of the LO I had going - I'll be using this sketch again me thinks in order to get a little drippy - its so much to watch ink/paint run down a page - discover where its trail will lead.

This Carriage & Horse (2012034) chippie is so intricate and detailed!!  I was nervous I would wreck all the tremendous laser cut lines - I didn't and it was actually easier to paint up than I thought it'd be - bonus!! - did take a bit of patience though - I used Lumiere paints, watercolors, and gesso - the opening was backed with patterned paper and then filled with some glass beads gel - love how this turned out!

I'm an alphabet fanatic through and through - must be why I decided Early Childhood-First Grade were the levels I wanted to teach when I was still in the classroom - when I received my package from ScrapFX I was thrilled to find so many cool alphas to play with - the kicker is there are sooooo many more I NEED - seriously - you do too - I'm sure of it - not convinced??  Check it:

See what I mean???  Aren't these Freestyle Uppercase chippie alphas (2008006) terrific!!  I've got the lowercase set as well and can't wait to bust those out too!  I painted these pieces with gold Lumiere paint to match the carriage - then coated them with Diamond Glaze so they had a lacquer look to them.

Well, its time to get ready here and I hope you all have a really blessed day with your loved ones! 

Let's Scrap Reveal

Well, I told you I'd be back today and I am soo glad I am! It's Wednesday and that means a new delightful sketch is posted at Let's Scrap! It's a double pager, but you can easily do one side if you prefer that style, like I do.

You are my son shine:




This is my DS when he was a baby. Not so much of a baby anymore at 13, but glad I waited to scrap this one! Brings back such fun memories and I LOVE seeing those chubby cheeks! :0)

The Nutmeg line from Cosmo Cricket worked perfectly with this Basic Grey I had. I love the whimsical warm feeling it created on my page.

Close Up of Title:



I created this title myself using naked chipboard. I will be providing a tutorial for how to do this yourself soon so stay tuned for that!

One more close up:



The clouds and flower are from Me and My Big Ideas, the ribbon is CC and MM. All other bellies are CC.

Thanks for taking a peek at my latest creation! maybe I'll be back today with a few cards. In the meantime, head on over to Let's Scrap to check out the new sketch and the sponsor for the week! This is the last week for the current DT there and I just want to say how much fun it was working with all the lovely ladies there! Looking forward to kickin' it off with the new DT next week!