Fancy Fold Mother's Day card

Look at this beautiful artwork my fellow demo Judy DiScipio created. Isn't it lovely? It uses the new Stampin' Up! 5 petal flower punch, Ginormous Flower stamp set, Priceless stamp set (which is what the vellum cardstock is embossed with), white embossing powder, white craft pad and mellow moss satin ribbon.

Thanks Judy. I LOVE it!

I share some of my other beautiful cards tomorrow. All great ideas for upcoming Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Extended weekend...

Hello friends! Been wondering where I've been? Here's the scoop.
First I'd like to say hello to all of my new stamping friends and vendors I'll be seeing many of you soon at my May 2nd Mother's Day, Father's Day event at Whole Foods in Baton Rouge.

Let's bring out my latest stamping ventures. May 2nd I will be holding another stamping workshop at the Whole Foods Market in Baton Rouge from 6:30pm - 8:00pm (check my EVENTS link in the sidebar for more info). If you'd like to join us, you should RSVP soon. The class is half filled already! This month we will be working on Mother's Day and Father's Day cards. Cards that can be used for any woman or man in your life really. As an added bonus, I will bring marble tiles and show everyone how to create a wonderful home accessory. Here's a sneak peek of the two cards we will be doing:

Here's an image of our feminine card:



...and our Masculine card:



The following is a sneak peek of my Rose Cottage Quik card class. This class will be available May 17th in the a.m. Find out all the details HERE. In a nutshell, I have created 12 cards from this one Simply Scrappi' Kit and still have 1/2 of the product left over to make another 12 cards! I couldn't think of anything better to for those end-of-the-year teacher gifts! What teacher wouldn't enjoy hand-made note cards?

Sneak peek 1:



Sneak Peek 2:



Sneak Peek 3:



Now, on to non-craft related business. This little beauty has nested once again in the coconut basket I had sitting on my grow rack. Last year she had 3 different broods (if that's the correct term for multiple dove pregnancies). Probably not the best thing to have around, a dove in a fiber basket. They carry lice and amongst other things, but I love having them close by. Did you know a Dove means Peace to your home (or so I was told)? The babies last year hung around the house for weeks (even though they could fly).

These babies must have hatched recently because Sunday I checked the nest and didn't see any babies. Can they grow that big in two days?

Here she is in her third trimester. Why, she doesn't look uncomfortable at all. What IS her secret?



....and here as a proud mom. Notice how she is holding her chest up much higher? Besides for being proud of her accomplishment, she is cover this second hatch ling underneath.



Other antics of Sunday included taking photos of the kids on my wooden star. My neighbor found this beauty at a garage sale a year ago and decided after a year she'd didn't want it. I LOVE it! She had it in her carport and you could see it from the street. It always looked so nice there. Now it's all mine. Not sure what it was used for originally, but I can tell you what it's good for...and what it's not.

It's GREAT for taking photos of the kids on. I've also taking photos of my cards displayed on it before.



What it's not good for is hanging on. When you find it in THIS position......

THIS happens.........

Poor baby. We were having so much fun until I walked inside for just one minute. Maybe if it wasn't the four year old it wouldn't have been so bad. He tried to run as it was coming down but just couldn't get far enough. Now we're dealing with a broken foot.

Needless to say I've been home since Monday with him, carrying him everywhere. He just started putting a little pressure on it today.

In between carrying our not so little one around all day, I popped out into my garden to see my beeeeeeeeutiful amaryllis blooming. Luckily I was able to see this before it broke, unlike my Red Lion Amaryllis (....due to the basketball bouncing mysteriously onto the patio table and knocking it off....hum).

Isn't she lovely? I'm going to make a garden album of it one day! What do you think of those triple layered petals??

Here she is from the side..

....and a close-up of the throat.

OK. I've got lots of time to make up at work tomorrow so time to hit the sack...and pick up the house...again.

Catchin' Up!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy working on displays for Allie's Store "Croppinsville" . Make sure you check out that link! She's got some great slide shows of The Paper Lofts wonderful papers. SO pretty! You'll want to also read through her latest post "Rainbows End" and leave a comment telling her to POST SOME PHOTOS of those wonderful finds she recently purchased. She's gonna have some amazing store displays.

I've been doing double duty, creating for Allie and preparing for the local Craft Show Parkview Baptist Spring Festival. I've actually got the craft show pretty much worked out as i've been doing them forever! I love being able to share with others how to use rubberstamps in their artwork and show them how stamping has progressed over the years. Here are a few samples of what I've created for the show.

First, more paper weights. These came out SO NICE! I'm really pleased with them. I used some of my designer paper Le Jardin, my retired French Script background and a Fleur de Lis from my Carte Postale stamp set.

Next, I have hand-crafted note cards. I think these came out great as well. They were created with a retired Simply Scrappin' kit. There are 11 cards in each bundle and ALL of them are different.

For those who haven't tried the Simply Scrappin' kits to make your own notecards, you don't know what you're missing out on. You get 12 x 12 sheets of solid cardstock & 12 x 12 sheets of patterned paper along with several sheets of stick-on die cuts. You only need to cut your paper down to size, fold over and start adhering the die cuts. You can get AT LEAST 22 cards from each pack. I know you can get that because each of these bundles below have 11 full sized cards in them and I still have paper and die-cuts left over from the kit




Well, I have lots to prepare before Thursday's setup so it's back to work!

Revealing Inspiration

Here are a few more images of my Yummy Blog purchase that I promised. First I should introduce the artist. Her name is Lisa Harshbarger and her blog is called "One Star Away". Lisa works mostly with glass and soldering. Lisa is also an admirer of Sally Jean (as am I).

Here is a sample of some works she posted on her blog "New Shop Things". You can find ALL of her wonderful creations in her ETSY store. Make sure you find the mermaid in her shop! I REALLLLLLLLY wanted it...but, I had my heart set on the party hat.

OK, now to share my yummy purchase from Lisa. I LOVE this piece! It even had my initial on it (I took that as a sign it was meant for ME).

Here's the full length piece.

A close-up

....here's the wonderful glittery "M".

Yummy Blog purchases

I have spent the past several months visiting countless Blogs and Flickr accounts, discovering the most AMAZING artists! These men and women (OK..mostly women..and stay at home moms at that) can transform anything and turn it into art. Each artist has inspired me in some way, whether through a particular color scheme, an embellishment or the entire composition.

Last week I made a wonderful purchase from a self-taught artist. I only discovered her last week through another blog. I'm going to share more about her lovely work and blog tomorrow, until then, enjoy this sneak peek of my yummy blog purchase that arrived in my mail just yesterday.

Office Accessories

It seems my weekend ran over into this week. I've been working on several projects at once, something every avid crafter does I'm sure. This Friday is my Carousel Purse class. The class will be held here at my home. It's been quite a while since I've held an actual class in my home (most have been at my local Whole Food Market). I'm preparing for several more classes at the house and just need to make sure the dates coordinate with our other scedules.


I've also been making a list of all the goodies I'm going to make for my friend Allie over at Croppinsville! Still pumped about being on that design team.


Last Fridays Whole Food card class (held the first Friday night of each month) was great. Here are a few samples of what everyone created.





Next month, we'll be designing cards for mom and dad in honor of Mother's and Father's day. Everyone attending will also be creating a hand-stamped tile, so make sure you register early, there will be limited seating. Class cost is $12 and you can read more by selecting the link on the sidebar "Melanies Events".

Here's one of my latest projects. It's a paper weight and I designed it for a friends website BuyLouisiana. He's got gaboodles of Fleur-de-lis home products and some speciality "Louisiana Foods", anything from crawfish to king cakes!

Here's a sneak peek of something I've created for him. I think they came out quite nice!