ceorl: noun

a freeman of the lowest rank in Anglo-Saxon England

pronunciation
( OK  so the word of the day isn't one that will find it's way into any conversation soon, which is good, because I couldn't pronounce it either...not without a couple glasses of wine anyway! )

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cute Card Thursday - #266 Can't stop the Rain

Scrap it with a Song - "Foolish Games" by Jewel

I used the first line to her song for my inspiration:

You took your coat off and stood in the rain,
You're always crazy like that.

I don't know about you, but I love the rain. Love listening to it. Love sleeping while it's raining. On warm days, I even love to walk in it. When I was a youngster my favorite thing was taking my dad's huge golf umbrella and making a "tent" out in the rain ( sometimes more than one umbrella was involved! )...accompanied by my troll dolls. Now as an adult, I'll settle for the covered balcony ;) Although I do have a healthy collection of umbreallas ♥

When staging this photo I have to admit I had a giggle because it's shot right in front of my Fushia plant....and I kill Fushia plants. I love them but have the hardest time keeping them alive...so in a way...this card is for my plant! lol 

Fiskar - Rain embossing plate

Big Shot

Our Daily Bread - stamp ( sentiment )

Ranger - stickles, Glossy accents

Faber Castell - PITT pen

Hero Arts - stamp ( bird )

Reminisce - white pen

persnickety: adjective

 fussy about small details : fastidious 

 having the characteristics of a snob

requiring great precision

pronunciation

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi everyone, here's some Monday Inspiration for you for our current challenge. 

Our DT member Brenshevia designed a sketch for us this time. 

You need to use a doily and let the sketch inspire you. 

 I took the lay out sketch and made it into a card.

entering this in Electric Paperie - Flowers

 Ranger - Distress paint, distress marker,stickles, liquid pearls

Maya Road - chipboard hearts, butterfly pin

Really Reasonable Ribbon - twine, lace

Autumn Leaves - stamp

Martha Stewart - doily

Faber Castell - gelato

Play along with us and you have a chance to win a fabulous prize from

Vintage Street Market

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and

A New Challenge over at Paper Playtime!!

Ch#9 Emboss (dry or wet)

Begins: Mon, Apr 29

Ends: Sun, May 12

Winner announced in the WINNERS Page Tab

Prize sponsored by TSQ Royal Castle Shoppe
"The Royal Garden" stamp set

(must have a USA address)

Here's what I created for this challenge:
( using a letter-press technique for the background)

Background: Fiskars Bamboo Embossing plate is first rubbed with Faber Castell Gold Metallic Gelto, and then run Kraft paper through the Big Shot. This is the letter - press technique part.

Heart: Cuttlebug Music Embossing folder used on heart cut from the Cricut Paisley cartridge, p. 60 and then edged in the metallic gelato.

 Sentiment printed on paper and then cut into a banner shape lifted up with Helmar's Liquid Scrapdots. Twine bow and charm added along with a small brad inserted through Maya Roads felt flower and all components adhered with Helmar 450.

entering this in:

Sparkles Monthly challenge - #43 Hearts ( 3rd entry )

emblem: noun

 a picture with a motto or set of verses intended as a moral lesson

 an object or the figure of an object symbolizing and suggesting another object or an idea

a symbolic object used as a heraldic device

 a device, symbol, or figure adopted and used as an identifying mark

pronunciation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aud Sentiments - #79 Happy Birthday

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes ( 2nd entry )

Little Scrap Pieces - Buttons and Bows

CARDZTV - #28 Cute as a Button

Paper Smooches - April 22 - 28 Picture Perfect Challenge

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenges - #37 Download


It's a rainy day in the neighborhood, a good day to take a nap....
but wait there's crafting to be done!

The "ribbon strips" are hand drawn and colored in with a wash of metallic blueberry gelato and the cupcake is colored in with white opal liquid pearls with a small dollop here and there for decoration.

Instead of adding buttons, brads or rhinestones I punched 3 holes instead...good thing people don't look at your cards with a magnifying glass because that one hole looks a little rugged close up!!

Paper Smooches by Kim Hughes free digi stamp ( cupcake )
Faber Castell - gelato, PITT pens
Ranger - Liquid Pearls
pattern paper, button, ribbon - misc.
Gabriola - font
Helmar - 450

now, about that nap....

decimate: verb

to select by lot and kill every tenth man of

  

 to exact a tax of 10 percent from

  

  to reduce drastically especially in number

  

 to cause great destruction or harm to

pronunciation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Color ( 2nd entry )

Moxie Fab - The Wonder of Watercolor challenge ( 3rd entry )

Sister Act Card Challenge Blog - #4
Crafting for all Seasons - No stamps allowed

I am l♥ving hand painting my own cards and creating my own designs more and more. Here, I took a bussines card to create the shape of the watercolor box and then free hand painted in the rest. I ran my image through the computer to get the sentiment.

puns + watercolors = sublime tingles of joy

Here are the watercolors that I have been using for this challenge...and yes, you are seeing it correctly; they are currently attached to a tag that I did last year for the TH 12 tags of 2012 and that I usually have hanging up in my craft room. I took it down off the wall to use for the watercolor challenges!

force majeure: noun

superior or irresistible force

or

 an event or effect that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled

pronunciation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steve Martin has a house somewhere in the hills of North Carolina and performs "When you get to Asheville"...♥ on the David Letterman show.

        -

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No crafting yesterday; I spent it with Carey at the Biltmore Estate oohing and ahhhing over all the scrumptious flowers and stuffing our faces with delicious food. It was a great day!

Walking up to lunch at the Biltmore Inn..

 a rose at every table...

the view from our table...

after lunch, a walk through the beautiful gardens...

and a surprise on the drive out of the estate....

a yellow river of flowers that seemed to stretch forever...

goodbye Biltmore...thank you for an awesome day!

Word quiz :)

What member of the "claudere" family can refer to a monastery or convent?

( answer at bottom of the post )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My card was deigned around the sketch from:

Inkspirational challenge #17

I began with my background first using a sheet of wax paper that has been inside the bottom of my spray box. To get the background on my card I simply sprayed the surface of the wax paper and then pressed my paper down onto it. I really love this technique!

I then applied the paints to my stamp and then misted it with water to emulate a watercolor effect.

 After stamping my flower with Ranger's Distress Paints ( broken china and spiced marmalade ), I used my Fiskar's fingertip knife to cut around one of the flower petals so that I could slide the banner stamped with CARDZTV sentiment under it. I love "sinking" one image behind another, almost as much as I love adding dimension with Helmar's Liquid Scrapdots.

Also entering this in: 

Moxie Fab - The Wonder of Watercolor challenge  ( 2nd entry )

and

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes ( 1st entry )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did you get it right? 

¹clois·ter

 noun \ˈklȯi-stər\

1

a : a monastic establishment

b : an area within a monastery or convent to which the religious are normally restricted

c : monastic life

Anyone else thinking of the TV show The Flying Nun?

The misadventures of a nun who can fly and her convent and neighbors. Sister Bertrille could be relied upon to solve any problem that came her way by her ability to catch a passing breeze and fly.

Wouldn't it be lovely is life was this simple again?

Word trend watch

Surreal

when:  Look ups spiked on April 15th, 2013

why: Used in some of the media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings.

 Surreal means "marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream." The same word was frequently looked up after the 9/11 attacks. A relatively new word in English, surreal dates only to the 1930s. It comes from the name of the artistic movement known as surrealism, whose effect was often created "by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations."

pronunciation

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moxie Fab - The Wonder of Watercolor challenge   ( which started it all )

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Color ( medium used - watercolor )

Sister Act card Challenge - #3

Craft Room Challenge - So Sentimental

Your computer and printer can be very useful tools in creating a card. You can use it as a light box to trace over images and you can run painted images through the printer too.

Remember: Whatever you run through your printer has to fit through the printer, and all images MUST be dry!!

voila!

water colors - so old...so very, very old

Traveling Typewriter - font

Honey Script - font

American Crafts - Marvy Marker

CARDSTV - stamp



hot air: noun

empty talk

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Interestingly, the history of hot air ballooning can be traced back to the 18th century - way before the Wright Brothers developed the first airplane.

The urge to fly like the birds prompted humans undertake several attempts to soar in the skies.

 The Montgolfier brothers - Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, are given the credit of being the hot air balloon inventors - a feat they achieved in the second half of the 18th century." 

I don't now about you, but I am fascinated with hot air balloons...don't get me wrong, I do not, in any way, want to be in one, I just like looking at them from the ground floating across the sky.

and why am I talking about hot air balloons, you ask?
 Because it's time for

where our challenge is Inventions, inventors, or steampunk

Our very generous sponsor is:

  http://www.genuinelyjanestudios.com/blog.html
 Where you have the chance to win a $25 Gift certificate !!

I was really going back and forth on this challenge because there are SO many awesome things that have been invented over time, but in the end inspiration from this picture  I discovered on Pinterest won out. I was smitten from the moment I saw it!

 So many elements were found recycled parts, the balloon ( or envelope ) itself came from packaging, covered it in tissue paper, outlined with my Pebeo to create the seams, colored with metallic melon gelato, and embellished with rhinestones and pearls.

The basket ( or gondola ) was created from a used tea light, that tin is so malleable, I just loved working with it. Covered it with tissue tape which was then washed with the same gelato color as the balloon. After I punched holes into the basket I sewed it with silk cording to attach it to the balloon. I used LSD to prop up the puffy heart that is riding in the basket.

I love the free hanging heart bead on the ground cable....which really shouldn't be attached theoretically beacause in the real world it would get caught on a tree or something...but then hey, there aren't giant puffy hearts flying balloons either... but I like how it looks :)

  

American Crafts - Thickers puffy stickers
Dear Lizzy - glittered chipboard bird
Maya Road - arrow chipboard, tissue tape
Ranger - Distress Paints, tissue tape
Pebeo - outliner
Helmar - 450, Liquid Scrapdots
Faber Castell - gelato, PITT pen
Higgins - waterproof drawing ink
Syudio G - stamp
Really Reasonable Ribbon - hemp cord

also entering this 6x12" wall hanging in:

Sparkles Monthly Challenge - #43 Hearts
Faber Castell - April 'Take the Challenge' with Mou

demulcent: adjective

soothing

pronunciation
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inkspiritional - Challenge #16

 

I struggle with monochromatic. There I said it.

Is there such a thing as a color therapist?

<insert smirk>

( as you see, I haven't planted the begonia yet )

The inside to the sentiment stamp actually has a "miss you"in the center of the circle...but I masked that off so I could stamp the pine cone inside it.

 

Personal Stamp Exchange - pine cone...( is the second oldest stamp set I own, from 1993! )

Autumn Leaves - Talking in Circles stamp

Ranger - Distress paints, mowed lawn, vintage photo

burlap, twine - misc.

Helmar - 450

Renee Lingren - markers
Imagine - Goosebumps
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And a close of my begonia, just love the way the sunlight is shining on it.

Take your time..ohhh and ahhh over it a bit....

ok, let's move on now, shall we?

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Even though all my Mother's Day cards are finished, I still needed a few tags for the store.

 

entering them in:

Really Reasonable Ribbon - #70 Mother's Day theme with ribbon

 

 3 more that I made :)

 

Maya Roads - velvet flowers

Really Reasonable Ribbon - twine, ribbon

assorted letters and papers from scrap

Cricut - Doodlecharms, p. 85