Bluebirds and Lavender

Here he is awaiting the woodpeckers departure from the suet cake on the other side of the tree.  He's eyeing up what they've dropped on the ground and will gladly clean up after their bad table manners.  

Almost as soon as the first clutch of baby blues fledged, mom and dad were building another nest right on top of the old one.  That, however, is dangerous for them as it brings the nest higher up in the box and easier for a predator to reach in and find them.  We do have the box on a fence post that's not connected to the fence and it also has a predator guard on it so hopefully raccoons or feral cats or even snakes can not climb up the post.  But to be on the safe side, HWNSNBP removed the old nest the next day.  Then there was a little bit of a squatter's war with the noisy wren. 

The bluebirds would put some grass in the box and then the wren would come along and take it out and put in it's twigs.  Then the bluebirds would move around what was in the box but weren't adding to it anymore.  So we tried what we had tried last year and put a resin goldfinch in the box to hopefully fool the wren into thinking the box was occupied.  It had worked the first time last summer and the second time the wren just built over the resin bird, and this one didn't seem to mind the resin bird in the box which leads me to think it might have been the same wren.  

But with diligence and good timing, HWNSNBP was persistant in cleaning out the twigs and the blues built their second nest of the season.  As of today, there are two eggs in there.

I don't have a good segue into the next pictures only to say that this past weekend we did a little local adventure to a Lavendar Farm that just opened up the weekend before.  It was on my bucket list to visit a lavendar farm last summer, but we missed the window of blooming opportunity.  It was only by chance that we saw this new farm was opening and it is so much closer to where we live.  

There are rows and rows of sweet scented lavender of many varieties.  You see in the picture below (taken on our way out) the plants that are blooming now.  They are the early bloomers.  There will be others in the next weeks.

When you pull all the way into the property there is this lovely red barn that houses the Lavender Shop.  Oh, what a delicious smell when you enter.  Not overpowering at all.  And they have all kinds of lavender products - soap, tea, sprays, eye masks, etc.  Earlier in the day I had picked up some little sock coin purses at the Dollar Tree for the cafeteria ladies at work and I was hoping to fill them with some lavender potpourri but they were all out and wouldn't have anymore until next weekend.  So I opted to pick up a package of lavender tea bags and wrapped two in clear plastic wrap and added them to each of the coin purses.  I left them in the cafeteria kitchen on Monday (the last day of school) with a little note that they should relax this summer and the fragrant tea bags would get them off to a good start.

Oh, and on the way there, we took a route we hadn't taken before by using directions from my phone.  We were out doing errands and it seemed at first that we were going way out of the way, but I think it would have taken us just as long or even longer to go back to our neck of the woods and then head out to the farm.  It was a much more peaceful drive and as we were coming up a small hill on one of the back roads a mink ran across the road in front of us.  At first we thought it was a really skinny squirrel that looked like it was crawling, but as we got a little closer we both realized that it was an animal we had never seen before around here.  It was moving way too fast to even think about snapping a picture.

So it turned out to be a good adventure on the first weekend of summer.

June Birthdays

I picked up this new embossing folder recently and used it for this card.  Once embossed I used a soft brush and some gold shimmer paint to highlight the raised butterflies.  And you can see there's one little gold die cut butterfly too.  Some organdy ribbon finished it off.

This seaside box card was fun to make and it really doesn't take a lot of time as long as you have the measurements written down somewhere and don't have to search for them.  I sometimes write the directions on the grid paper that I use at my work space and then I sometimes forget what I wrote on the grid paper and either stamp over it or throw the paper away.  Ever do that?  

A teacher came into the office a couple of weeks ago and wanted some transparencies.  I said "Oh you reminded me that I need one of those myself".  And then when I took it out of the package to give to him, I inadvertently said that "I need mine a little stiffer" which gave us both a giggle.  

So what did I use instead of a transparency?  Someone recently gave me a little gift that was in one of those clear plastic packages.  It wasn't really too scratched up as some of them are, so I cut it up into strips to have to use for cards like these that make the stamped images appear as though they're floating.   

I purposely cut down the flaps on the sides and front of the box because I wanted the coral on the base visible.  I was so happy that I had that wavy embossing folder that I used for the flap pieces.  I brayered the ink on the folder first and then ran it through the Big Shot.  The wet ink came out looking a little splotchy which was perfect for the water effect I think.  

Happy Birthday ladies!

Jingle Belles - Red & Green & Christmas All Over

Though not your traditional green, my card fits this week's challenge of using predominantly red and green.  

The background was made with these tape runners I found in the clearance bin at AC Moore, and even though I did use a ruler, the strips came out a bit crooked and funky.  So I added a funky looking wreath made out of multiple-sized circle punches.  Then I added a bit of red and white baker's twine and a bow of the same.  

Note to self:  It's much easier to wrap the wreath before you attach it.   Luckily I had it popped up on dimensionals so I could feed it through.

Let's see what the other Jingle Belles have to share this time - click here.

ICAD - 2014 - Weeks 1 & 2

What is ICAD you ask?  It stands for Index Card A Day.  From June 1 to July 31.  This challenge originates on the Daisy Yellow Art Blog.  I've linked to the FAQ page.  

I vaguely remember seeing this last summer but I think it was well into July when I did and since it runs from June 1 to July 31 it was too late to start.  Then I saw mention of it again on my Jingle Belle friend Lauren's blog and went to investigate.  I did a photo-a-day challenge during July a few years ago and it was a lot of fun using the prompts.  This challenge also has prompts but they're optional and already I've found I've used some and other days just created something without a prompt.

For instance I did a calendar of sorts which will be a cover for my ring of index cards.  I already had a stack of index cards punched and on a ring that I intended to use for a tangle-a-day project that didn't get off the ground, so I might as well put them to use.

June 1 - Prism.  I remembered the prism scene from Pollyanna and used her explanation to make a sort of rebus using words and drawings to illustrate the quote.  (Markers and Prismacolor pencils.)

June 2 - Circus Tent.  School gets to be like a three ring circus about this time of year and I do have a supply of clown noses on hand to lighten the mood when needed.  My circus tents were watercolored with Derwent Inktense pencils.

June 3 - Hello My Name Is.  Well there it is.  I tangled my name using a tangle that begins with each letter of my name.  L-Lace. O-Onamato. R-Raddox. A-Ahh. I-Isochor. N-Nightsbridge. E-Ennies.

June 4 - Puzzle.  My father would do the daily cryptogram puzzle in the newspaper.  This was the puzzle of the day.  Pretty good quote too!  I added some red and black tangling.

June 5 - Galaxy.  Well, this did not turn out at all like I pictured it.  The news had recently reported that stars come in colors and I wanted to try to depict that.  So I scribbled some colored stars with my Prismacolors and then took a white crayon and scribbled over the colors.  I added more white stars with the crayon as a resist for the background which was an attempt to use the Derwent Inktense pencils again.  Then added the words from "Dream a Little Dream of Me" with a micron pen.

June 6 - Nail Polish.  I used a new embossing folder that had all these drippy shapes and embossed the index card first.  I kept the card on the embossing folder while I colored the shapes with the Inktense pencils.  I took a damp paper towel and laid it on the colored image and rubbed to try to get the colors to "inktense".  Truthfully, I liked what I got on the paper towel better than what I got here.  

June 7 - Yellow.  I grabbed scraps off whatever was yellow off my worktable for this.  There was some hand stitching with this one.  I stitched the punched flower piece to the darker yellow back piece and also stitched the crepe paper to ruffle it a bit.

June 8 - Mandala.  I was working on this while watching the Tony's that Sunday evening.  I used some Marvy Le Pen's.

June 9 - Alphabet.  More Marvy work here.

June 10 - The Beatles.  I sketched the heads of the Fab Four sans facial features in pencil and then added the words from "In My Life" which was our wedding song.

June 11 - Toy Camera.  Here's where the train came off the tracks a bit.  I had a catalog for school supplies that was going in the recycle bin at work so I cut out some of the bulletin board border samples and lined them up like film strips (okay, it's a stretch).  Then added some more FUN.

June 12 - Paisley.  I was fooling around with highlighters on a post-it note at work making those pink flowers and I thought I could turn them into paisley shapes.  

June 13 - Book Review.  I took a black Sharpie marker to the index card.  I save envelopes that have interesting patterns on the inside and that's what I used here. 

June 14 - Magenta.  Okay, magenta was not to be.  Not just because I couldn't find anything magenta but also because it was Flag Day and I wanted to use that theme.  Again I used that envelope paper and just red and blue markers in between the lines.  The star was watercolored in yellow but got lost against the background so I added a torn piece of packing paper to make it stand out.  

Well, that was the first two weeks and it was fun and also therapeutic in a way as I don't have to sit too long to complete them and still get some creating in.  

I know this post is very long but I think it will be easier to do one or two weeks at a time rather than try to do the project and post it in the same day.  

60 Rocks

HWNSNBP turned 60 this March.  Yep, one of those milestone birthdays.  And it deserved a celebration, but March is a harsh month so we opted to plan a little party for early May.  Believe it or not, I had purchased these Paperkins pkts. 10 years ago with the intention to use them as invites for his 50th birthday. 

I picked them up at a store called Amazing Savings and you can see the price.  They had some pretty good deals there but sadly, they went out of business a few years later.  

They were stashed away to possibly use at another time.  I remembered that I had them we were ordering a new recliner for our living room.  The old recliner was blue and the new one was going to be brown.  Perfect!  

Popcorn, soda, and the remote wouldn't do though.  It was Rachel's idea to use the pizza and beer instead.

And of course there were some cosmetic changes that were needed.  Glasses, mustache, and some gray highlights to the hair.

The theme of the party was "60 Rocks" and, unknown to HWNSNBP, I asked everyone to bring a rock with a special message on it so he could add them to a new rock garden he was putting in this spring.  At the party during dessert (he didn't want a birthday cake), everyone presented their rocks to him.  I won't share all that but the one that got the biggest laughs was from Rachel who "put her sentiment on both sides so he could see it when he was in the ground since he's so old"!  

We asked that there be no gifts but some people, who will remain nameless, surprised him anyway. These are the thank you notes that I made up for him to send out.

The card was inspired by one I saw on Debbie Henderson's blog.  Of course I had to use a bluebird stamp and add some blue feathers.  During the party our guests got to see what was going on in the nest box through the nest cam.  Mama Blue was still incubating the eggs at the time.  

We had two carport tents set up and had borrowed a friend's ping-pong table so the guys could play beer pong.  Old-school beer pong.  With paddles and alternating hits.  Cups and all.  When HWNSNBP attending Lehigh University his freshman year, he was introduced to the game played that way.  It has changed quite a bit since then.  But our guys play the traditional way.  And they're still good at it!

There were only 14 of us so I made some of HWNSNBP's favorites - sloppy Joe's, sausage cups, hot ham and cheese sliders, Texas caviar, and of course his cheater churro's for dessert.   We had a veggie platter, shrimp and coleslaw from Costco and other snack foods too.  

We had a little bit of rain off and on which brought the women inside for a bit, but all-in-all everyone seemed to have a very good time.  Especially HWNSNBP!

A Couple of Thank You's

Back in April I received a beautiful plant arrangement from our staff for Administrative Assistant's Day and wanted to thank them.  The card above was CASEd from Nance Lempinen-Leedy.  I needed something that wasn't too feminine and loved the fact that she used the hexagon punch to make some "nuts".  The background stamp I chose reminded me of a gradebook.  To go along with the card I made a batch of pizzelles which were scoffed up rather quickly.  And, truth be told, the card was still on the table in the faculty room a few days later and I scoffed that up to repurpose it.  I figured I can just cut off the back and use the front again.  And even if I don't do that, I'll have it as a physical example to make another one like it in the future.  

Below is another card I made for the staff earlier this week.  I was out of work for about two weeks recently with my back injury and they all signed a card with well-wishes and gave me a gift card to one of our favorite grocery stores so we could get a couple prepared meals and I wouldn't have to cook.  They're so thoughtful.

I used cs in two shades of orange - Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango and stamped the orange slices with Tart and Tangy (retired).  For the wording, I used my Just Rite alphabet and stamper and one of the speech bubble dies.  The edges of the speech bubbles were brushed with Tangerine Tango ink.  With this card I put out a giant tub of orange slices candy.  

I've got a few more thank you's to put together for some of the parents who have helped out this year.  Our last day of school will be June 23 for the students and staff.  It's really flying by so fast at this point and there is so much that has to get done before the dust settles.  I'll have a few days off to catch my breath at the end of the month.  Whew!

Fledging

Last Tuesday I had been monitoring the nest cam in the house all morning and at times I could only see three babies in the nest.  When I got the binoculars out to check, sure enough the fourth one was trying to peek out and must have been clinging to the inside of the box.  At that point I could only see the little beak and eye as it hadn't gotten that far up to the opening yet.  I was sure that it would only be a matter of time before they would be leaving and was a little sad and worried.  I was sad because I had to leave for PT and wouldn't be back for a few hours, and I was worried because we were expecting thunderstorms that afternoon.  

Well, happily they were all still in there when I returned and since the storm had passed I thought I would take a walk up to the garden to see if I could get a picture of the "peekers".  Luckily I checked the first few before I came back down because the change in temperature had fogged the lens and the first set of pics were very hazy.  I had only to hope at that point that the parents, who had noticed me and were noisily flying from tree to tree in a panic would realize that I wasn't going to hurt anyone with my camera.  Walking away and standing under a nearby tree for a bit calmed them.  Then I stealthily approached the fence and propped the camera with my fingers on the fence to be ready.  Gotcha!

Later that evening I was doing some puttering around in the stamp cave and could hear lots of noise coming from the nest cam but didn't think anything of it until I came downstairs and looked and saw that there were only two babies now in the box.

I grabbed the binocs again and stationed myself at the kitchen window and saw one of those babies come up into the opening.  He got his feet on the edge and tipped forward to allow his wings out of the box.  They looked so pretty splayed across the front of the box.  But he caught his balance and drew them back in.  Father blue was coaxing him from across the garden on the top of the fence and as soon as he caught his balance he lept out and both he and dad flew up into the nearest tree.

Looking at the nest cam I could see the last one nervously jumping around inside the box.  And then he jumped up and as I turned my head to the window I could see him boldly leap out of that box without a parental escort right up into that tree.  

While it would have been lovely to have pictures of that, I was thrilled to actually see those two little ones fledge. 

Jingle Belles - PEACE on Earth

Truth be told I really do have a good reason for not having this card done earlier in the challenge - I haven't been able to sit without pain in my lower back and thigh for the last week and a half.  I pushed myself doing some gardening and the Rice Krispie elves, you know Snap, Crackle, and Pop decided to pay a visit to my lower back.  Those sneaky elves herniated a disk and tore another one whilst they were visiting causing my sciatic nerve to flare up to the point that I could not walk or sit without excruciating, and I mean like 16 or more on a scale of 1-10!    

But this is not a pity party for Lorraine.  This is me trying to stamp and be creative while standing.  Well, there was some sitting, but sitting is more like listening to and watching a Jack-in-the-Box.  I can sit and the discomfort builds and builds and builds, until I finally can't take it anymore and have to stand up like the Jack-in-the-Box popping out after being wound up.  

I was going to go on about my experience, but I'll just say that I've started PT and am seeing some good results and we'll see how much of a Jack-in-the-Box I'll be when I return to work on Friday!

So, you know when you think that you're going to make a quick card and it turns into a not so quick card?  Yup, that would be this one.   I thought using this single image embossed in white would be a good route to go to be quick and it was, but there was a snowman on that front hill that I did not want so I had to be a little more careful when inking the stamp to avoid it.  Then I decided I didn't want the hills to be blue, so I painted on some Frosty White Shimmer paint.  And the image is underneath the white panel which meant measuring and carefully cutting the opening so I could pop up that layer over the embossed piece.  (Don't tell anyone, but the glitter brads were added to cover up some messing cutting in one of those corners.)  

The image comes from a retired SU set called Country Pleasures that I won on ebay a while ago.  (Perusing ebay can be done while standing I will add.  Whether it should be done is another question. I just hope the packages come in on days that I get home first from work!)  

The sentiment is from an AMUSE set called Holiday Greetings Inside and Out.  I used Night of Navy and Shimmer White CS.  And I highly recommend investing in a centering ruler.  It really did come in handy getting that opening for the image centered.  

Okay, time to visit some of the other ladies and their PEACEful cards here.  

I'll be posting some other "standing" projects in the next few days!

Birthday, Bluebirds, and Rainbows

I must say that I really like the way this card came out.  It was for a dear friend whom we got to spend some time with this past weekend.

It gave me a chance to use some of the tools and toys that I had purchased lately and not yet used.  The lovely leafy frame die and a new embossing folder and yes, the daisy was hand created too.  

I found some shades of purple butterfly buttons cleaning the craft cave recently and they wanted to be part of the card too!

As we helped friends on LBI this weekend relocate dune grass back onto the dune and to plant their flower bed there were intermittent showers and in between we were treated to a rainbow over the ocean.

I find it hard to get a good picture of rainbows with my digital camera as the camera doesn't really know what to focus on.  So I just click away and hope for the best.  There must be a trick to it and if anyone knows one, please share.  

We had such a good time with our Table 7 group and I'm sure we were the source of entertainment for our hosts' other guests with the stories from our more youthful days that sometimes get more and more embellished as the years go on, but are always so much fun to rehash.  It never ceases to amaze me the amount of detail that HWNSNBP can remember about a camping trip with his buddies back in 1972, or a particular party back then but he can't tell me where we keep the crockpot!  

We've been monitoring the bluebird nest for several weeks now with the nest cam and when we got back from our visit I finally got HWNSNBP to get a picture of the actual occupants.  There are 4 babies who are being very well taken care of by both parents.  HWNSNBP has name them Hercules and Delilah.  I have no I idea why, but I'll indulge him.  I'm sure the birds won't mind.

They hatched on the 17th of May and we got to watch them hatch.  Surprisingly, we also saw the Mrs. eating the egg shells after the hatchings which was something new to us.  We always thought that they carried the shells away from the nest.  We know they do do that with the poop sacs.

Their eyes are open now and they are very demanding when they hear their parents come to the box.  And they're getting so big that mom and dad just step right on top of them when they go in to tidy things up.   None of them seem to mind.  

We might get one more opportunity to get a picture before they start hopping around.  We don't want any of them hopping out before they're ready.

Jingle Belles - Tis the Season to *Jingle*

We had a wonderful sketch to work with this time and one other requirement - to add some bling.  

I've had this glittered snowflake sitting on my work table since Christmas.  It, and the green ribbon on the card were part of a decoration on a gift I received from one of the students at my school.  His mom happens to also be a stamper and she decorated the package so beautifully I almost did not want to open it.  

There are times when something just looks so right you hate to spoil it.  I find that happens with certain times of the day and when the light is just right.  It might be outside or inside, but I know that I can take a look around and just feel so happy that it looks so wonderful at that moment.  I try to take a mental photograph to remember it.  It can be fleeting or last until let's say, a cloud passes overhead, or the sun sets, or even when the seasons change.  

Strange to say that would also refer to how a package is presented, but if you follow what I'm trying to say I think you can understand.  

Keeping the package intact would not have been possible in order to enjoy the contents (which I did by the way), so saving the pieces was the next best thing.  It's just a wooden snowflake generously glittered, but it was too pretty to toss away.  

I decided to use a snowflake embossing folder on Crumb Cake and then I swiped it with my Gold Encore ink pad.  the ribbon is layered onto a strip of gold foil paper.  I took this out of the package for the first time and thought that it really had nice weight to it, it almost felt like foil.  Then I cut it on the paper cutter and it was then that I realized that there were two sheets and I had just cut both of them (this is when I smacked myself in the head!).  

The snowflake was pretty blingy but I thought the card needed something else.  So I went through my stash of jewels and things and found this green swirly one that I believe came from the dollar bin at Mike's when it was still a dollar bin and not yet the $1.50 bin.  (That price increase still peeves me.)

The card base is Chocolate Chip and I'll add the sentiment inside.  

Thanks to the wonderful sketch this went together pretty quickly.  I missed the last Jingle Belles challenge because I was busy preparing for HWNSNBP's 60th birthday party.  Now that that's done, I hope to get back to more card making.  

You can check out the other cards for this challenge here.

Clean-Up Card and the 300th Tea Party

So as I was trying to straighten up the stamp cave I kept getting distracted by some of the scraps from other projects.  It was like they were talking to me saying "we belong together".  And maybe it looks like a pretty weird color combo, but I think it works.  The green wood background was too pale for the project that I originally made it for but here, with the shades of pink and burgundy I like the contrast.  

This next card was meant to be part of the 300th Teapot Tuesday celebration.  I even used some of the featured techniques of some other challenges that week - the pillow top background technique and the ribbon flower.  But I never got around to posting it.  You were to bring a piece of furniture or a room decoration to the party.  When I saw that, I immediately thought of this chair stamp.  It looks so pale here, but it's really pretty IRL.  

I stamped the image on watercolor paper in Basic Gray ink and then used a combo of inks and aquapainter and straight marker color.  I colored the doily portion with ink and a dauber in Blushing Bride and used Calypso Coral as the card base and the ribbon flower.  The pillow top background was created with Calypso Coral and Blushing Bride ink.  

I'm sorry I missed the party.  I'm sure it was lot's of fun!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, godmothers, aunts, sisters - all our female counterparts who make such a difference in our lives and who are there as role models and support systems.  Cheers to you!

Sending Sunshine and Peacocks

I sent another Bag of Sunshine.  Our USPS mail lady at work has been out for several weeks now under the weather so I thought I would send her some sunshine to cheer her up.  It was good to hear back from her that it worked.  My thoughts are with her as she recuperates!

And this card below went to a blogging friend who now lives in Florida.  I mentioned her a few weeks back when I shared the card she made for me.  I also sent her some solar powered flying pigs.  She's had some serious health issues and I just thought those pigs would be good for her.  I chose to put a peacock on her card because someone once told me, and I can't say if it's true or not, that peacocks roam wild in Florida, or at least in some places in Florida.  I sure hope that she has free roaming peacocks instead of free roaming alligators!  

It's been a busy time around here preparing for a small 60th birthday party for HWNSNBP so my creatives juices have been at a trickle.  Hope to be back in the swing soon.