artistic medium:

In the arts, a medium is a material used by an artist or designer to create a work.

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I have showed this before, but for anyone visiting me from the Really Reasonable Ribbon site....( thank you for hopping over here ).... I want to link you up with Dynamic Auto Painter, the coolest paint program. You upload your picture and then choose which ever artistic medium you want, lots to choose from. Now, I have not altered any brushes, or hues, so far I am happy just to upload my picture, select the medium and hit start...lol It does everything for you and you can stop the painting at any time so you can get as little or as much effect as you want. On this picture of Wren, I let it run to about 20,000 brush strokes.

You can also see the Dynamic painter disclaimer running along the bottom of the picture, as long as you don't pay for it, you will have that. Obviously I am not paying for it ;0 I LIKE FREE.

I used Cricut's Paper Trimmings to cut out Wren's nameplate and butterflies for her hanger, first out of chipboard so it would be nice and sturdy and then in the coordinating paper. Next I hand stitched around the name plate and then her name was cut from the Cricut's  Don Juan cartridge and glued down.

Really Reasonable Ribbon - Shimmer Satin Pastel Assortment

                                            -  20 lb Hemp Cord Pastel

Cricut - Paper Trimmings cartridge
Cricut - Don Juan cartridge

Maya Road flowers

If you're interested in seeing the completed project then just hop over to Really Reasonable Ribbon.

And the winner of my blog candy from the RRR blog hop is Tammy L

who wrote:

Tammy L said...

this is such a great box! I've not seen it before. It is really adorable. I'm a new follower and waving hello from the Great White North of Calgary Alberta Canada!

July 13, 2012 9:38 AM

Congrats Tammy!

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Don't forget we are doing Project Pinterest here ;)

culprit: noun

the source or cause of a problem

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I have culprits in my garden, while I am sure it was the raccoon that knocks around stuff on my balcony, including my hummingbird feeder, I am not sure who is munching on my flowers. The other night a taste test was done by a mystery guest. I don't think it was the rabbits as I see them out in the yard all the time and they never seem interested in them...perhaps a deer?

Anyway, we will loosely relate this to the Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

:)

This was the papa bear of plants, evidently it didn't taste so good :) 

( will plant more New Guinna Inpatients next year ;)

This is the Momma bear of plants, evidently it tastes pretty good but not fantastic, it gets nibbled on quite often but not completely demolished:

But this..this is the baby bear of my plants and evidently it tastes "just right"...lol So good as a matter of fact that the mystery muncher came back for seconds the next night and now NOTHING remains, so it's clear that I cannot plant the regular variety of Inpatients out in the yard.

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and for everyone who is keeping up with my Beach mini album progress, here is:

page 5

"Ocean treasures left on the shore, Nature's gift to adore."

Perfect Sentiments - PSC41 Anything Goes

Really Reasonable Ribbon - shimmer satin ribbon

If you want to see the cover, go here.

Pages 1 and 2, go here.

Pages 3 and 4, go here.

beach glass: noun

A type of glass formed when glass bottles are left on a lake or ocean shore for a long period of time. Waves and sand act as a natural tumbler which smoothing out the glass and leaving a soft frosted surface
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My 4th page:
Keeping them simple so journaling and ephemera can be added as we go along. I imagine adding sea shells, or beach glass to all the pages would be cute.

 I added the littlest bit of Really Reasonable Ribbon to the flag of this sandcastle which was cut from Stretch Your Imagination.

Here are pages 3 and 4 laying side by side.

If you want to see the cover, go here.

Pages 1 and 2, go here.

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Project Pinterest, where we share our pins!

I'll show you mine, if you show me yours!

<wink, wink >

snoop: verb

 to prowl or pry; go about in a sneaking, prying way

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WOYWWonderful!!

I would love to give each and everyone of you a big hug and a kiss for going over to the Really Reasonable website and commenting on my post there. Y'all are the sweetest, kindest and most loving ladies that I have had the honor to blog with! Thank you for making me feel so special!

 And congratulations to Kim from Lazy Cowgirl who got picked and won a ribbon assortment!

Yay Kim!!

and

Happy Birthday wishes to Anne!

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So now to my desk! You can see the 4th page of my mini album I am currently working on. Nothing is glued down at the moment, it's laying there for final inspection before being assembled. The usual amount of drawers are left open, typical me. :)

 And since I was taking pictures of messy things, I stopped in the hallway to snap my grandmothers sewing table ( one of my favorite pieces of furniture! ), which is sporting books to go back to library, stash of sunglasses, doggie treats for Shirley's dog ( always handy so I can grab one when I go to visit her! ), pink umbrella that needs to be put back in my car!, a tea pot vase, which started out in life as a tea pot bird feeder that Jamie gave me for Christmas, and is now filled with Carnations, ( I plugged up all the holes with a clear water proof caulking and it's working out great now as a vase! ) keys, Prada sunglasses ( my indulgence ) and my wallet. The glass wreath on the back wall is made up of all sorts of tiny broken treasures that were my mom's.

So how is everyone doing today? I am currently in countdown mode for my beach vacation that is coming up in August, and I am making my friend who is going with me a mini album to put all her favorite beach pictures in.

Page 3 of my mini album:

 I added some elements that again, we will slide her photo under it during vacation. I love this saying that I picked up while surfing an online interior decorating beach store. I made it look more dimensional before cutting it out by drawing in the depth of the sign with my Tim Holtz distress markers, and then cutting a slit in it so I could slide the sign post through it. The fence was made from my Happy Hauntings cartridge, I snipped of the top of the post and the grass along the bottom, and separated the last post so I could tilt it. I wanted it to look like the beach erosion was making it come apart.  I cut strips of wispy ocean grass to come up between the post with the grass and the sign tilted to the left like it happened from the continually strong ocean breezes. The seashells were cut from my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.

Really Reasonable Ribbon Twine

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If you want to see the cover, go here.

Pages 1 and 2, go here.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day because you deserve it, now I'm off to snoop! lol

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And as always I leave you with a reminder to go check out Project Pinterest!

horizon: noun

The apparent intersection of the earth and sky as seen by an observer

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I don't know how you set up your mini albums, but I always try and do a poem, or something that sets the tone for the album on the first page. Found these "beach rules" on Pinterest ( and thought it was perfect for it. ) Doodled some clouds behind the words, and shaded with chalks then added a couple of seagull stickers. I also added white paint around the edge of the page using my finger.

The second page, using the same blue paper as the first page ( I like my pages to tie together with color a little bit ), using Really Reasonable starfish ribbon as a horizon to imply the ocean. Again doodled and shaded the clouds just like I did on the first page to carry over my theme.

I love sinking things into the sand on layouts of the beach. I bet if I go back and look at previous years you will find this is one of my favorite techniques. I use a water pen to draw my line and then tear the page to give it that soft ragged look. I also doodled on the word 'beach' to help it stand out a little bit more. The beach word cut from Out Of Character cartridge using a variety of different fonts and welded together on the Cricut Craft Room. ( First letter at 1.0" and remaining letters at .5" ) Only the bottom half of the title is adhered to the page so the photo can be slipped in later.

And I loved the fact that Fantabulous Cricut's challenge this week: Challenge Me Monday #120- Sunny Days is to use the sun in your project so it was my starting point for this page. I knew I was going to pop dot it up over the corner of where the picture goes, ( so again the photo can be slid in at a later date during the vacation ) I added some of Tim Holts Distress Ink to the rays and hand stitched the center of the sun for some added detail. Cut from Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge ( 2.0" ), and the center was cut from Paper Trimmings cartridge ( 1.25" )

Page 1 and page 2 laid side by side:

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So where do you find your inspiration? If it's from Pinterest, and you made something, then please, link up to
Project Pinterest!!to show it off!

paraphernalia: noun

equipment, apparatus, or furnishing used in or necessary for a particular activity

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One of my favorite things to create are mini albums, I really love making them as gifts too! My friend ( who doesn't visit my blog, I'm not sure she even knew what a blog was until she met me, doesn't stop by too often, so I am probably safe in sharing this! ) ....anyway, we are going to the beach together next month, and since she rarely even has her pictures downloaded, edited nor printed, not even to mention she doesn't put them in an album, ( I mean how can you, when they are most likely sitting in some abandoned file somewhere on her computer )...::sigh::..how do I get these kind of friends? lol

Oh well, that being said, I thought it would make a cute gift to collect her pictures for her and put her favorites from our vacation into a small album. I figure I'll make up the entire book before we go to the beach, designate each page for a 4x6 picture and a small saying, quote, etc. for the picture and take it with me to create while I am there. We'll see how this works out, best made plans and all that! lol

So 2 sites are having challenges that I can enter this into:

Pan Pastel UK Challenge Blog: Sun, Sea and Sand

and

Cricut Circle Blog, to use the Out Of Character cartridge

Big sigh, I am spoiled!
  With the Out Of Character cartridge, I wish they had made it so you could break up more of the letters using Cricut Craft Room so you could personalize them more easily! I had to resort to my pre-CCR days of cutting the whole word several times on different paper and cutting them apart by hand to get the desired look I wanted to achieve. I actually printed it several times on white card stock so that I could do some fun things, adding sand embossing powder to the letter R, wrapping twine around it with beads, dripping alcohol inks and spraying mists on the letter V,

 sewing mesh onto the letter E, and adhering ribbon to the letter L and adding a fussy cut starfish embellished with stickles and glossy accents.

I also had fun adding twine, beading, shells, and glittered fish. I don't know about you, but for me the most fun of a mini album is decorating the cover! lol  One of the fish got cut off in the letter A, so I painted him back in using Smooch and paint and finished him off with a pearl eye!

And as usual with mini albums comes the usual beach paraphernalia for the closure. I have used 2 rings, a string of beads and shells and a tag that says fun in the sun!

And what does it all look like when you have all the letters, sand, shells and beads put together? It spells a TRAVEL album!

Really Reasonable Ribbon, twine, ribbon
Out of Character cartridge

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Hope you are stopping by Project Pinterest, there are some real cute crafts and yummy recipes being made from the pins these ladies are using from Pinterest! We would love to have you join us too!

copacetic: adjective

very satisfactory

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I love quotes and I love wall hangings, so being able to combine them together is just copacetic for me!

The quote reads:

We are all a little weird and

Life's a little weird.

And when we find someone whose

Weirdness is compatible with ours,

We join up with them and fall in

Mutual weirdness and call it love.

Dr. Seuss

 Because the signs are so lightweight, they can be hung with a push pin! I always hang my most recent wall sign and it's fun for me to see which one's are my favorite, cause they remain up the longest. ( I have 4 hanging currently, including this one. So far, there are 3 that are holding the favorite spot for quite awhile! )

 I added lots of sparkle and shine with stickles and gems to the sun's ray which are made of Really Reasonable Ribbon, twine and DMC floss. I used my Silent Setter to punch the holes in the paper to thread the ribbon and twine through them.

I cut the birds out of paper and used Really Reasonable Bakers Twine to create their tails and wings, and stamped some small flourishes to 'express' their love, although I have to laugh at the male bird's eye, it's rolled to the back like he is looking for a way out of this whole love trap he fell into!

Really Reasonable Ribbon: #52 Sizzlin' Summer Colors and Ribbon Theme

Frosted Designs: Fabulous Friday Challenge-Stamping!

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Loving the projects that everyone is submitting for Poject Pinterest and if you want to add yours, then link up and let us see what you created!