It's been a busy two days. I hosted a home jewelry dinner party last night. I reluctantly signed up for this duty at a friend's party last fall; it was a weak emotional moment I'm sure. And then I was going to prepare a birthday lunch for my sister-in-law today but the number attending kept growing, so we met at a restaurant instead. All I had to do was bring the cake . . . Costco cheesecake with huge fresh blackberries. Ta dah! We leave for Las Vegas at o'dark thirty Saturda

I promised something totally different and I think I found a very simple "different" from what I've posted the last couple of days. LOL! Meet a new stamp line I discovered, Stamping Bella's Cool Chicks Collection . . . full of humor! My sis-in-law has been trying to exercise and I haven't quite jumped up to join her yet. So I thought this card would be most appropriate to send to her. On white card stock, I stamped with Memento in Tuxedo Black. Used my Copic Markers to color

There is a new stamp line design, Pen and Ink, that a good friend directed me to find. I was to purchase 3 stamps for her while I was at this store; I loved them so much I had to buy a few for myself. Thanks, Gail! The artwork is by Josephine Kimberling, who resides in the Seattle area, and has an extensive background in art and design. She has created designs for Nordstrom and Hallmark according to her website. I'm so happy she is sharing her beautiful art with the stamping

I am back from our trip to London to visit our granddaughters. The weather was cold, windy, rainy, icy and snowy, as well as sunny. I had vertigo that kept me in bed on 2 different days, and I ended up falling in the shower two days before we left. It was quite an eventful stay. The best part was spending time with Cecilia and Hailey. Our hearts were warm the entire time spent with them. Hoping to get back into sync with the local time, I actually didn't start reading in bed

In my reorganizing, I came across this stamp set from Impression Obsession. I had never used it yet because I needed to brush up on using a stamp positioner (the old-fashion ones). Along comes the MISTI stamp positioner and I want to immediately work with it. On white card stock, stamped each peony stamp in the set with Distress Inks. After it was dry, I made a watercolor palette with 3 of the green Distress inks. With a small watercolor brush, I colored around the peony. The

So far, I'm just flittering around. To concentrate on just one thing is a challenge. I've been multi-tasking all day long, unintentionally! I also kept flittering through stamps and ideas, and finally dove in. This is an older stamp from Magenta, perhaps new to you. Because it's more of a shadow stamp, I decided to bring out the Distressed Inks. Applied Distress Inks to completely cover stamp image. Stamped onto card stock; allowed to dry. Used Spica glitter pens to follow th

Another quickie card in the works today. Just found out some wonderful news from a family I know out-of-state and I wanted to send a note off immediately. What quicker way is there than to pull out my Nuance watercolors, embossing powder and die cutting machine! Inked with VersaMark; embossed with white embossing powder onto watercolor card stock. Misted with water and shook Nuance in several places. With a wet watercolor brush, moved the colors around. Blotted with a paper t

Tomorrow is my grandniece's 15th birthday. Of course, she's going to be 15 going on 42! I thought I'd make a quirky card to lighten things up. And this card couldn't be any more of that. That crazy bird was colored with colored pencils, as well as the hat. The hat was covered with Glossy Accents for a little dimension, as well as a bubble at the top. After stamping the bird, a stencil design was applied using Memento inks. I stenciled after so I could see where the bird was t

Yesterday didn't go as planned but that's okay; it was a terrific day. I was supposed to drive to Bellevue for my haircut and my head started doing its thing, so I rescheduled and drove back home. On the way, though, I stopped at Happy Donuts here in Puyallup . . . the BEST donut shop ever! My comfort food was donut holes and they filled the spot. Later, I went to Costco and found the perfect salad kit for dinner. I continued my organizing and purging, and I even managed to c

Yesterday's Easter celebration with family was a wonderful time spent. My 2 year-old great granddaughter provided us with lots of love and loads of entertainment. The food was yummy, too! Easter has always been filled with children; in addition to my great-granddaughter, we had 4 other small ones to prepare an Easter "basket" for. On Saturday, I discovered the sweetest stencil from Echo Park Paper Co. I had to purchase it because it was perfect to make Easter cards for the li

UPDATED COMMENT: This post was to have posted early Saturday morning and it didn't. So here it is. The day didn't go quite as planned. I lost track of time after lunch and squeezed in too many errands before returning to Puyallup. That meant I had to cancel, AGAIN, my Italian tutoring lesson. Dang! Before dinner, I sorted through my stash of embossing folders; I hope I found them all! Inevitably, I came across a few duplicates. Then the Gonzaga U v. Syracuse basketball tourn

Yesterday morning we awakened to the horrifying news taking place in Belgium. The tragedy and unspeakable terror shook any peaceful calm of the morning. My cousin and her husband are traveling in Europe, arriving in London yesterday from Venice. I'll be so relieved when they're back on American soil later this week; I think they will be, too. I came across this stamp from Magenta and it expressed what I was feeling. I found the stamps designed by Dina Kowal for Impression Obs

Sorry for the absence the last couple of days. When I left a card class at Art 'n Soul on Saturday afternoon, I was driving to a memorial event and about 1/2 mile up the road my head pain came in with a roar! It was all I could do to get home. Even the pain meds didn't work. So, I also missed a Mended Hearts Auction & Dinner that evening and a full day working on the studio project yesterday. I slept a lot and watched a few movies . . . boring! I've been waiting and waiting

Yesterday was another day of not a lot of time in the studio for anything. So, I spent a good deal of time last night into the wee hours continuing to undo what is visible in the main area of the house from my organization and purging project. My dear husband is getting somewhat anxious because we have a St. Paddy's dinner party for 12 on Thursday. In between clearing away, I had to do something in the studio. I had come across these mixed media boards we had worked on at a M

As I started to make this St. Patrick's Day card for an Irish friend, I reminisced about several Irish blessings and songs I've enjoyed over the years. What fun to hum and laugh over a few as I mixed the two green Magenta Nuance colors, jade and grass green, with water on the watercolor card stock. As you can see, I wasn't able to quickly locate my "Happy St. Patrick's Day" stamp. I used a Rosie's Roadshow word stamp that I thought sounded liked an Irish blessing; inside, I'l

It's the first day of March. Based on the stormy weather, probably one of the worst of this winter, this might prove to be quite a month. Instead of being tucked away in my studio, I was out in it. At one point, I was drenched to the skin from the sudden downpour that immediately followed the loudest clap of thunder I heard inside the noisy restaurant. Not surprisingly, Hannah was sound asleep inside the the car, snuggled in her pet bed. Returning home, I just had to do somet

At the suggestion of a friend, I ordered Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils; they're made in Switzerland. I only ordered a set of 20 because they're a little spendy. They're a permanent pencil with a smooth lead and exceptional lightfastness, according to their literature. I had purchased 11 of them earleir but I think I left them in LaQuinta; of course, the resort cannot find anything left behind in our room. I'm so glad I re-ordered because I like the smoothness. The co

The lunch today was too much fun! We enjoyed a somewhat healthy menu of apple & butternut squash soup; roasted vegetable tossed salad with baby spinach and arugula; and a carrot cake with a cheesecake and glaze pecan topping. The last menu item is why I said "somewhat" healthy, although carrots, pecans, and cream cheese are low carb and limited quantities of sugar are used in both the carrot cake and the cheesecake. That's the story and all of us are sticking to it! The secon

I am slowly wading my way through the stacks of mail, to-do lists, and other must-do's since our return from LaQuinta, CA almost two weeks ago. Since that time, my husband had back surgery this last Wednesday. The pre-op and post-op requirements have been extremely time consuming but necessary. No more do I finally rebound from the coughing crud than my husband has his operation. We are definitely the walking wounded at this household! On Valentine's Day, Tom's uncle passed a

More fun making Christmas cards! This first one was very easy. I used the Hero Arts' Ombre`Ink (Pool to Navy -- AF3008) on 118# Conqueror Card Stock in Diamond White. by Debbie Gaetz IMPRESSION OBSESSION Holiday Row Houses E16124 MAGENTA There is Magic 07807.I Versamark & White Embossing Powder by Stampendous Dark Red Sakura Glaze Pen for lights on Christmas trees & wreaths Silver Glitter Pen for Star on house Yellow Glitter Pen for candle lights Sentiment stamped with VersaF