Happy 2nd Birthday

Hard to believe he's 2 already!

Jingle Belles - Orange You Glad it's Christmas

Isn't this a fresh look for Christmas?  The orange and white with the bits of lime green and aqua/mint are really outside the realm of tradition.  But it's so pretty.  So pretty as to be the inspiration for the prompt for Jingle Belles this fortnight.  Of course, with any inspiration photo, you get to pick the parts that inspire you, so there are really no limitations.  

I did find the colors inspiring.  I think I've used orange before once or twice on a Christmas card but not this much.  It was only sparingly in the background.  This time I decided to be a little more bold about it.  

The tree is die cut from white glitter paper and I added gems of various sizes in orange and lime green for the ornaments.  The bow is orangey/copper metallic elastic cording.  The orange glitter you see is ribbon already glittered.  

I enjoyed working with these "non-traditional" Christmas colors.  Not sure who's going to get this card, but that's usually not my decision.  HWNSNBP is responsible for choosing who gets what card unless I've specially marked them.  

This challenge will be open for another week so I might just get inspired one more time.  You can check out all the other wonderful interpretations of this cheery room by clicking here.  

Scribble Picnic - WATERING CAN

I drove myself crazy on Monday going through all my picture files because I know that I have a picture of a collection of watering cans along the side of the road in Harvey Cedars but after several HOURS of looking - yes, it became sort of a compulsion at that point - I had to give up.  It didn't help that I knew that HWNSNBP was with me, driving the car actually, and we had several friends along in the car with us on one of our Table 7 adventures but he had no recollection of it.  I think he was getting annoyed at how much time I was spending on my search - or maybe it was that it was snowing and my last day of spring break and I had privately declared it a pajama day.  In any case, should anyone not have guessed by now, the theme for Scribble Picnic this week is WATERING CAN.  So - plot twist - I will actually do a drawing of a watering can that I actually own. 

Yes, it is a flying pig.  And believe it or not, I have more than one of these.  One came all the way from New Zealand from Sunshine as a gift for National Pig Day.  And the other came from Carol, a former co-worker as a birthday gift.  Both of them know that I have a special love of flying pigs.  (You can search my blog for flying pig and get the whole story if you have the time.)

I figure that if unicorns can, um, shoot rainbows from their, um, rear ends, then why can't my flying pig watering can shoot rainbows from her snout! 

Okay, I think I'm beginning to fade, so I'd better head over to the picnic and check out all the other WATERING CANS.  You can too by clicking here.  And should you care to join in next week, the theme is PAJAMAS. 

Jingle Belles - Spirit of Christmas Past

I absolutely think I spend more time looking for things than I do creating.  When I saw this prompt (2 weeks ago mind you), I remembered that I had come across some vintage Christmas postcards that I thought would be perfect.  So in some spare moments I poked around hoping to find where I had so cleverly put them so that I would know exactly where to look for them.  Sometime during that search I became aware of the theme for Scribble Picnic this week (watering can/s) and I knew I had a picture of a collection of watering cans that I had taken a few years back.  So that search kind of overtook me and I spent several hours going through all my picture files looking for it.  (To say that I have such a vivid memory of stopping to take that photo was driving me nuts that I couldn't find it.)   Jump forward to today when I realized that I never found the postcards and I hadn't done my card yet.  

Scrambling around in the stamp cave I did come across this digital scene that I feel embodies the vintage theme.  I had to fussy cut it out wanting to keep those pretty holly leaves and berries intact.  And then I decided it looked a bit flat, in color that is.  So I took a gold paint marker and went over all the gold lines in the leaves, berries, and star.  But it still needed a little punch.  

Velveteen red paper was my first choice for the background, but it was not to be found.  Luckily this shiny red, silk-like paper fell out of the pile.  Okay, so it's a little plain, but IRL it looks a lot more luxurious.  Still thinking it needed something, I hit the ribbon bins and came up with the holly and berry ribbon that is bordered in gold.  Two little loops at the top was all that I had time for, but I think that's all it needs.  Except for the metallic gold trim that I also found in the ribbon bin.  It's very spring-like and does remind me of the metallic decorations on old Christmas ornaments.  I'm just hoping that it will not rust from the glue, which you might notice is not entirely dry.  

So when I finally do come across those postcards again (which will probably be tomorrow) I am going to put them in the box with all the finished cards that I have for this year.  Something I probably should have done to begin with.  

Now, I must head over to the Jingle Belles to check out all the other lovely vintage goodies. Please join me by clicking here. 

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Happy Easter

We brought the little Easter Bunny his ears a couple of weeks ago.  I wore them into the house with my sunglasses on and as he came tearing to greet us, he stopped in his tracks and then ran back to hide his face in the couch, not crying but giggling all the way.  I wasn't fast enough with the camera when Grandpa got him to try them on, but his mom managed a couple of pictures after we left.

Doesn't he make a cute bunny!

Happy Easter everyone!

Scribble Picnic - EGG HUNT

Wanna go on a Scribble Picnic EGG HUNT?  How many eggs can you find?

Spring break started on Monday and since the students are not in school I took some vacation days this week.  I've been trying to take care of a few things around the house but most of all, I've been trying to put some of my stash of craft supplies to use.  That can be very distracting.  But it can also be inspiring.  

My egg was inspired by some scribbling and painting I had been doing over the last week or so.

My paper flowers were created with dies that I had picked up a few years ago and had not yet used.  I thought I would give them a try this week.   The only problem was that after I had them all die cut I found out the instructions that came with them referred me to a website that was supposed to have more complete video instructions, but since these particular dies have been discontinued, the video was not available.  So I had to fudge around with that daffodil a bit.  Thank goodness there's a good color picture of them on the packaging.  I'm liking how they came out and wish I had a stamp of my egg so I could make some cards with them.  

Had I known I was going to like the egg so much I would have made a copy of the black and white drawing before I painted it in.  (The violets below do not have their centers yet.  I spent some time searching the stamp cave for yellow flower soft and finally remembered that I didn't have yellow flower soft at all.  So I had to result to using my cut paper technique to get those fuzzy looking centers you see above.)

Well, I hope you have an enjoyable Easter or Passover, and beware of April Fools!  I think we might be taking a little trip to Cape May this week for a birthday lunch and some shopping, but our Easter will be quiet.  We visited Rachel and her boyfriend Ryan in their new house in DE last weekend and our son and his family are planning the little guy's 2nd birthday for next weekend so we'll all be together then.   

So for now, I hope you join me in hunting down all the eggs the Picnickers have hid for this Egg Hunt by clicking here.  Stay tuned for the new theme.

Playing With Colors

Just playing around with some art supplies and color.  

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First Day of Spring

Scribble Picnic - CREAMS

When I first saw the Scribble Picnic theme "CREAMS" I was a bit confused.  There are so many ways to use or interpret this word.  Ice cream, egg cream, face cream, candy cream, cream soda, cream in your coffee, cream puff, creamed corn, cream of the crop, cream cheese, creamed spinach, cream of tartar..... but with the "s" at the end CREAMS must be something specific....... or not.  I had some good suggestions from Christine and Sabrina but ultimately, since I often find myself doing this the night before it's due, I decided to do go with the first thing that popped into my mind.......Cream-colored ponies (with crisp apple strudel - not visible but making me hungry for it none-the-less).

I don't believe I've ever ridden a real pony, but I do know that I have ridden carousel ponies many times.  I'm not much of one for the scary rides on the boardwalk or at amusement parks and neither is my husband so our kids missed out on those thrill-rides when they were with us.  But we have pictures of them on the carousel, aka merry-go-round, from our yearly family vacations when they were younger.  

So, I will take a gander at what the rest of the picnickers are bringing to the picnic.  You can join me by clicking here.  And should you care to join us next week, the theme is Egg Hunt!

Jingle Belles - Sing a Song of Christmas

Some of you that visit might not realize that the Jingle Belle challenge is a two-week theme.  Besides giving us two weeks to finish a card or two, they also provide us with beautiful inspirational cards of their own that they feature in the second week posting.  This would be Sing a Song of Christmas (see it even has it's own title).  

We're snowed in yet again today, so I got some time to play in the stamp cave uninterrupted.  (I've also been binge-watching Longmire on Netflix so it's been twice as enjoyable.)

The designer paper has a subtle sheet music background and even though the words that are stamped with the deer are not a Christmas song, the sentiment that came with this is a line from "Silent Night" - all is calm all is bright.  In the picture the black stamping looks a little drastic, but rest-assured, it's not as emboldened IRL.  

Okay, now I really have to get going to view all the other contributions from the last two weeks.  Please take a look at the wonderful samples from Lauren and Steph along with the entries for this week.  I'm sure you'll enjoy them all.  

Jingle Belles - Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This fortnight the Jingle Belle theme is musical.   I've had this planned in my head for the last week but, true to form, I let this go practically to the last minute.  You know how it is when you plan something in your head and then you can't find what it was that you wanted to use? Well, that's unfortunately what happened here.  I really wanted to use some sheet music that was more condensed, but I couldn't find that stash and had to go with this one.  The tree stamped in the star are the words to one of my favorite carols "O Holy Night".  

Word of caution, don't look at it too long, you might get a headache thanks to that busy background.  What was I thinking!  Well, there's always time before December to have a redo.  

So let me scurry off to finish up the second card and get them both posted in time.  You can check out all the other musical-themed cards by clicking here.

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Scribble Picnic - ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

There's a lot going on out in the universe that we don't understand and probably are not even aware of.  Could there be life as we know it on some distant planet?  And if there was, what could we do with that knowledge? Staying a little closer to home, this blue planet in our neck of the universe has many mysteries of it's own that we are still striving to learn about.  How does the whole of the universe affect us here? There are many forces in our own solar system that influence events here on Earth.  So it's not hard to believe that there are forces in the universe that by entering our solar system have an effect on us in turn.  We know that the gravitational pull of the moon controls our tides and that solar flares cause magnetic impulses that can give us the northern and southern lights or aurora borealis but what else out there is controlling our planet?  What other star flares or gaseous clouds might play a part in the life of our planet?  

Looking at a recent weather map of the latest Nor'easter we've just weathered, it appeared to me to look a little like a cross between solar flares and the northern lights.  Actually, there is a magnetic storm predicted for today which might give some of you a view of the northern lights tonight. 

I've only seen them once in my lifetime here in NJ and honestly don't remember much of what they looked like because I was only about 10- or 11-years-old and had never heard of them before.  We had been visiting an uncle a few towns over and it was cold and late, but I remembered the words "aurora borealis" as sounding strange and beautiful.  Only years later would I actually learn what it was that I had seen. 

I used some Posca paint pens to recreate the weather map.  I started with some large blocks of the main colors and then added the stroke work.  I found it very relaxing as I have with the wind maps that I have done with markers in the past.  And I really love the vibrancy of the colors in this.  

I hope all the picnickers up north get a chance to see those lights tonight.  Think of me if you do.  It's going to be cloudy here so even if it were to extend this far, the clouds would obscure it.  

Speaking of the picnickers, it's time for me to head over to Scribble Picnic and see how else the universe influenced the artwork this week.  You can join me by clicking here, and should you like to join in the fun, our theme for next week is  CREAMS which I think I might have to get some clarification on.  

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