WCMD Challenge #4 Australia

My great grandmother, on my mom's side, was born in Australia in 1859. Although she did not live there for many years of her life, I have always been intrigued with the country of her birth.

For the past three years my preschool has taken a trip around the world during the summer and every year we visit Australia! It has been so great learning about the different animals and live there. The children really love it.

The base of this card reminds me of the dirt in the outback ~ a rich burnt orange. I cut the birds out from a patterned paper I had and added the outline in white paint. The edges of all the elements are inked with Time Holtz Tea stain (LOVE IT!), adding another color from the outback. In addition, I randomly inked the base of the card with the Tea stain.

Enjoy!

WCMD Challenge #2 Mexico

I was inspired by the "Celebrations" of Mexico. Mexico loves holidays and celebrates them all in a big way.

One of my closest friends boy is having a birthday this week and I thought what a great opportunity to make a birthday card.

I used 3-d foam dots to add some dimension to the "cake", balloons and to the ends of a couple of the pennants.

I used glitter to add another dimension to the balloons.

WCMD Challenge #1 Japan

My inspiration for this card is two fold ~ a Tree and a beloved Aunt.

My parents had this beautiful flowering cherry tree in their backyard when they lived in Washington State. For eight years I had the joy of watching this tree bud and blossom every spring with its abundance of delicate pink flowers. I loved that tree!

Some of my earliest memories are of spending time at my Uncle Richard and Aunt Toshi's house with my sisters. What a cultural experience! My aunt was from Japan and there was always some sort of interesting food to be had at their house. I loved her little Japanese garden with its Kio pond in the backyard. There was always adventure to be had inside. Aunt Toshi had the largest collection of fabric I have ever seen. My sisters and I would play and sort and resort these fabrics while visiting.



The branch is a depiction of the buds on that beautiful tree my parents had. I used my Cricut cut the branch out and added gems to represent the buds. The dotted lines I inked down this paper are very reminiscent of a weeping cherry tree. Inside the scalloped frame is a charm with a "Lucky" Kio fish, which reminded me of my Aunts pond. All of the edges are inked with Tim Holtz Tea Stain.

WCMD Challenge #3: India

I have taken some time to get back on track! With so many irons in the fire, my creative juices were almost drained.

My sister Michelle gave me a much needed creative boost this week. Thanks Sister! My creative juices are now running full force (YEAH!)

This is my interpretation of the WCMD Challenge #3: India. When I think of India I think of sari's in bold prints prints, beautiful henna tattoo's and jewels.

I used my Cricut to cut an intricate boarder around a flower stamp mimiking a henna tattoo. I then pulled the blue color from the floral background paper by marking in the flower. The strip on the left side of the card is a flower stamp with a flourish, repeated and jazzed up with some jewels.

My goal for this design was to embody the beauty of sari, henna tattoos, and the jewel the women of India are know for. In my mind that is a goal completed!

Enjoy!

Monogram Me

It is hard to believe that school will be starting in just a little over a week! What a whirlwind summer I have had.

With the preschool full and a new teacher in place, I am ready for the school year to begin. I am so excited about the Scrap Clubs starting! For just a few bucks a week, kids get to scrap and craft on Wednesday afternoons for Bend schools and Friday afternoons for Redmond schools.

I taught a Back-to-School Class today. It was fun! Six girls in total. They each made a bookmark, a backpack tag, and a journal with their own monogram. Once again I was impressed with how individual each item was from the example I had made. Options are the key. Even though we all had the same materials, the paper I selected was double sided and I let everyone make their own choice on what side they wanted to use.

During this class I decided to join in the fun - what better way to demo a technique than to do it live and in person. OK - so my original plan was to make the demo's with my neice Madeline's initial, I forgot and used my own. As I wanted to make one to send to her, I figured that I would just do a live demo and kill two birds with one stone! I am glad that I did she is going to love it!

Takin' a Break

When I have a really crazy day I love to shout, "Stop the planet, I want to get OFF!." Not that I really do, it just makes me laugh and go on about life...

In addition to my Preschool, my husband and I own a Home repair business. I hold the contractor license and Cecil is the muscle (ok he does all the heavy work). Things have been totally slow and the state of Oregon has once again changed the playing field. Renewal time is just too stressful! I am happy to say that all the paperwork is signed sealed and delivered (almost it just needs a stamp!). Whew!!!

All that paperwork really zapped my creative juices, so I decided to spend most of my day with my neice Karlie. We played a computer game for most of the day (thanks goodness I have employees that allow me times to get away)! Besides Karlie and myself, Feona, and Miss T helped us out at different times. My hubby even got into it with Kar and Fe. What a great day!

It felt so good to have a day that I was able to take a break from the pressures of "stuff"!

I already feel relaxed and ready for tomorrow!

Let the Scrapping Begin

Finally! I have started a new project. I began working on my Wednesday Scrap Club for Kids projects.

Today I began working on the album keeper. I thought that this was going to be an easy project, boy was I wrong! I am fairly new to mod podge, oh sure I used it in the '70's (dating myself there), but I have not used it in a long time. Refreshing myself with the best way to go about it.

To begin with, it was difficult to get my paper to stay on the cereal box. I am not sure if I used to much mod podge or the paper was too thin or if the cereal box was not stiff enough. Whatever the problem is I am not digging it! The paper is wrinkled and it does not look like I thought that it would. Bummer!

I will have to consult with Sherry tomorrow to see where I went astray. So much for simplicity. Maybe I am just to done in from my busy day.