The Itch

 It's been a while since I felt that "itch". The kind where ideas start popping in my head, and my hands "itch" to play with art supplies. But thank goodness, it is back. 

Now, I just need to find the ENERGY and WILL to do something about it.

Nothing to see here

 I'm in the desert where creativity is concerned. 

Not making time

Not happy with the few things I have created. 

Almost time to sail away!

 Independence of the Sea! Starting Sunday, I'll be on the way to the Caribbean! I can't wait!!!!

I was looking at the deck plans...we are on deck 3  -- there is a theatre, ICE RINK!, the dining room all on our floor. 

We got updated to a stateroom with a window! WhooHoo!

I thought I had an excursion booked for St Thomas, but I don't see it on my reservation. Going to have to cheek on that. We also get priority boarding, embarking, seats for shows, etc. Yay!

But I'm most excited to do the art classes. So excited!

1/12 - BTW Monday!

    I had such a good time this weekend.  Although  we did get terrible news on Thursday evening. Terri's hubby TY, has stage 4 cancer. God has this heavy on my heart. I'm not sure how we wants me to support  her but I feel He wants me to help. 

    I worked on 2 journals and made 18 Christmas cards. We spent so much time hanging at the table. chatting & laughing. I love spending time with these women. Kari, Crystal, Karen, Carol, Ann Marie (first time at Groovy), and Angela. 

 

Retreat Day!

 Got my final stuff packed and loaded. Karen asked me to bring patterned paper scraps. I packed way more than I can get done, but hey..you see things and get inspired! 

So on the agenda is...

Christmas Cards

Valentine Cards

Black Doodle Journal (maybe, I don't think I packed the right markers for it.)

Autumn Journal

 2 Card boxes (Proof of concept)

Index card mini journals

We shall see how it goes!

I'm excited and ready!

Rebirth!

 Rebirth is the right term for my crafty life. Not that is has been dead...far from it. It's been overwhelmingly busy...buying, creating, buying, more buying than creating....in so many mediums. 

I have made some solid decisions, some not so solid decisions about types of crafts that I am laying aside...

Scrapbooking - I have a plan for what to do with all my current scrapbooks, and I have  some pages that I want to create for Cora & Erin. (Cora says they are not well represented in my scrapping!). I laid aside crocheting and daily journaling last year.  I miss the daily journaling though, so these blogs are taking it's place and expanding it a bit too, since I added 2 new blogs. 

Card Making, Art journaling, Shop Crafting Demos (will explain this in  a future post), are now my focus. I'm happy about that. 

So to start off this crafty re-blogging, I am excited to say that I am going to a retreat at Groovy this weekend, with several of my crafty besties. So excited.  I plan to work on:

1. The dozen or so Christmas cards that are 'in progress". Want to finish them now, because I won't have a clue what to do later with all the pieces and parts I have prepped. 
2. Valentines Day cards
3. Make at  least one of the card boxes I didn't get done for Christmas.
4. Doodles in  my black journal.

Yeah, it is way more than I can complete in 3.5 days, but better than running out of things to do.

THEN! Oh boy THEN! On Jan 25th, karen, Carol and I set said on a 7 night Caribbean Art Cruise.  i AM SO EXCITED!  We'll be working in a four signature, handmade paper journal. I've received my journal, and have all my background pages painted, sprayed and stencilled. All ready to start creating pages during out 4 sea days of art classes!! Plus, we three girls have fun excursions and party plans onboard too! 

So stick around....lots more coming as I dive into art in 2026!

Flipping

My first flipbooks, and my first tries at using Flipagram too

Happy Tuesday!

Its a very happy Tuesday for me...just because!

Last week I shared the cards I made at the Columbus Scrappers Retreat..today,I am going to share some of the pages I made while there also.

Started scrapping my June trip to NYC. 

Two Times Square pages. They were supposed to be a double layout, but in the end I don't think they look like they belong together.

I really loved central park.

So I scrapped TWO layouts of it!

And scrapped a page of my beloved granddog Brutus. Miss him so much!

There are four more pages that I scrapped, but they are going to be gift projects, so I can't share them just yet!

Happy Scrappin!

Fly Little Dragon Fly!

I joined a DragonFly card swap...and decided to make my own dragonfly's from stamped images.  Can't say that I am in love with my results, but the process was definitely fun.

I started by stamping some SU! Dragonfly's, colored them with markers, and coated them with Glossy Accents.

These are the finished cards. 

Happy Scrappin!

Back at it!

Hi again! I'm back, after having been gone 4 days at the Columbus Scrappers Summer Scrap booking retreat. I LOVE my retreat times! Yet, they leave me really tired (who sleeps at retreats?) and I need a few days to catch up..plus missing two days of work makes my email inbox blow up like crazy, so I have catch up there too.
Wanted to take a few mins today though, to START sharing some of the fun things I made during my fabulous four days away!

Let's start with the cards! I like to begin retreats with projects that are either in progress, or small easy to do projects to get my creativity brewing.  I started this retreat working on 3 SU! Paper Pumpkin card kits. I LOVE how they turned out!

This is the March 2015 Kit. That stitching took me a long time!

Both of the above designs are from the June 2015 Kit

And these final two are from the July 2015 kit. 

Happy Scrappin!

Sneaking in some art time on Alumni Weekend

Its Grove City Alumni weekend, so I'm creating in between softball games. Mostly, putting finishing touches on things almost done, and progressing on a painting that isn't there yet..

Although not finished yet, this red poppies acrylic piece is coming along. Needs a lot of depth still. We'll see how that goes!  I am just a beginner in drawing and painting, but I really love doing it. I get such peace with a brush in my hand and the smell of paints in the air.

I did finish up some "scrap" cards...love using up the bits n pieces left over from other projects. And these get to be used in a swap too! Fun!

And I'll close with a pic from the ball fields. Our Cindi is the last of the Monaghan's (for now) to still be playing in the tournament.

I had a comment! Wow!

I didn't expect ANYONE to be reading after five years. Thank you dear Sherri. I love you and somehow we must find time to get together.

On to today's fun! First off, I received a sweet card from FB friend Laura yesterday. In my "Cards I Wish For"(CIWF)  group, I had wished for a card with tulips..and just look at the beauty I received!

I just adore the watercolor look of the stamped tulips. So sweet! Thank you Laura!

Yesterday, I also finished my second PL, It goes into the mail today. This time, Jessica from Cincinnati and I swap Project Life Pocket Letters.  We both do project life style scrapbooks, so we had lots of those style cards and embellishments. Here's shots of the one I am sending her...

No real front or back to this PL. Just lots of fun cards to use in our Project Life Scrapbooks

(btw, all the "goodies" are hidden in between the 4x6 and 3x4 pocket cards).

I have just as much fun decorating the packaging as I do make the PL!

Go Make Something fun today!
Hugs
Kelly

Pocket Letter Pals

Remember Pen Pals? I have had a couple over my lifetime. Now, I've discovered a community of folks who share art with their pen pals.  Pocket Letters (PL), are ATCs, placed into baseball card page pockets. Then you add goodies to the backside of the pockets and send to a pal. You can be a one time, or an on-going, long time pocket letter pal.

I've been lurking for a while in this community...waiting to have some time to invest in making some Pocket Letters. Well, I am finally in the pocket letter pool.

My first one goes into the mail today. Funny thing is the reason I am back to blogging is because with each pocket letter, you include a real letter to your pal. (There is the PenPal part).  When I was creating my introductory "all about me" letter, the template I used asked for my email and my website. which reminded me of my blog, and the fact that I take pics of most things that I make. (So I can redo them if I want.  My brain went duh! why not post them all on your blog. So here, I am.

The recipient of my first PL doesn't read my blog (yet) so I feel ok to post pics of it here.

I gotta say, making these are addicting! I can't wait to get one back from her!

Laura and I decided on a cooking theme, since its something we both love. This is the decorated front side of my PL.

and here is the backside with the goodies., I tucked in cooking themed die cuts, washi tape, twine, flowers, and some chalk treat labels. Also in the top right pocket you can see my letter to Laura. 

I wrapped it all up on some tissue paper, made a belly band and name card to hold it together. I also 3 butterflies  that I made a few months ago for NSD. I punched them from some gelli prints that I printed onto recycled  newsprint paper, added  black sequin bodies and attached them to paperclips. Paperclips also seem to be a hot embellishment these days! I think these are tres chic!

Do you swap?

I've discovered facebook swap groups....heaven help me...a new addiction...like I don't have enough?

Here's a peek at some things I've mailed off recently.

well, I can't get it turned around the right way on here, but this card reminded me to use my embossing folders more often. They made a huge impact. I also love love love mono-or dual toned themes. 

In one of my groups, someone wished for a card with a giraffe. I had so much fun making this cute fella.

This one isn't a swap..its for a dear friend of mine.

5 years, really?

That's a crazy amount of time to neglect a blog. I sure haven't stopped creating though. I've actually found my sweet spot I think. I create 3-4 mornings a week now, and often several hours on the weekend. So I have much to share...a wider variety too. Time to get at it.

I began a summer challenge over at Yellow Daisy. Not sure if I'll finish it, but I've done several ICADs that I had fun with.

Both of the represent bits n pieces of my some of my internal struggles. It does feel good to document feelings in an artform. Easier for me to "feel" them that way.

Introspection

This page reflects some of the self doubt that I feel at times.  I think I’m seen very differently than the way I see myself. Doesn’t everyone feel that way sometimes?

The photo is a surprisingly good snapshot from a trip to the zoo. For once, I didn’t have my signature “goofy” look on my face.

The journaling is a segment of the lyrics to a Trisha Yearwood/Garth Brooks song., I used some random yellow tulle that I had lying around the studio (it came from a floral arrangement bow I think) behind the journal block to pop it up and give the page some depth.

Another Sketchy Thursday Entry

Sketchy Thursday also has a monthly guest design team challenge sketch. So I played along with the October challenge.

I love this photo, the blues are so intense. While I was doing some organizing, I found this patterned paper and cardstock that I had paper clipped together at some point in time. I still liked the combo today, and knew it would look great with my photo.

My original intent was to put eyelets in a nice line along the left side of the cardstock. Once I got the holes punched for the eyelets with my Cropadile though, I loved the look of the holes. So I grabbed the Big Bite and keep making holes. (It looks like I totally eyeballed the placement, but I actually used a ruler to try and line them up…as you can see, I had minimal success, but the overall look is pretty good). Its Art! Its Perfect Just the Way It Is! Right?

I really like these flowers. And guess what, they were a total steal! I got a 2 foot vine of these flowers, leaves, and some beads on the clearance rack at JoAnn’s a few weeks ago. The whole vine cost me 1.99 and I probably got 2 dozen flowers and  a bunch of beads. ( Now, I need a craft idea for those little beauties).  What a score!

Happy Scrappin!

Lovely Labor Day Weekend

I’ve had a fantastic weekend,with lots of craftiness involved. I shopped a little, organized a little more, and scrapped 3 of the 4 long weekend days. Awesome!

Here’s one of the pages from Friday.. I had a wonderful lunch with my babygirl that day and was feeling warm and fuzzy from out time together. So armed with a sketch from this week’s Sketchy Thursday I whipped up this page in less than 2 hours (which is a fast page for me, considering I was watching Criminal Minds at the same time).

I had a blast making the background. It was a happy accident. I was attempting to use Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on a Maya Road plastic lacy overlay sheet. I decided to use the heat gun to help the drying process along. It worked but don’t get too close, I made one corner melt a bit. But when I lifted the overlay I discovered I LOVED the masking effect it had left on the paper I had underneath it in my misting box. TA DA! So I took the blue Bazzill I wanted to use and redid the whole process and I ended up with this lovely shimmery background.

More overlay love, on the photo, this time a little one. I can’t recall the manufacturer, only that it was a RAK gift from one of my Columbus Scrapper girlies.

The patterned paper is from an older K&Co stack, that I distressed the heck out of with the awesome Zutter Distrezz It ALL that my BFF Karen gave me for my birthday.

The title, made from sparkly Thickers and my Signo White pen, says it all, since my girl is my heart.

Happy Scrappin!

Sympathy Moments

Not every card occasion is a happy one…but sending comfort to someone who is hurting somehow gives comfort back to you in a way that just doesn’t happen with those happy cards.

I think these turned out very elegantly and they were very easy to do with a Cricut cart ( need to run see which one I used, since I forgot!)

 

Something’s Fishy!

I fell in love with this patterned paper from Cosmo Cricket’s Snorkel line (2009/10?) as soon as I saw it. Love the way this page ended up turning out too.

Had to add some dimension, so I popped up some of the adorable fishes

.

And pleating this sheer orange ribbon looks great, I think.