exciting news.

the announcement is officially out...zany zinnia has a new design team, of which i am a member...hoorah! very fun day in that respect. stacy is one of the owners over there, and they put together some beautiful, and well priced, kits. about the middle of the month she'll post the dt teams gallery. i have been asked to create with the 'natural beauty' kit. and it is a beauty. a stunning blue combined with yummy chocolate. and fabulous webster's pages patterned papers. i'll post when the gallery is live. fun stuff!!

in other odd news, my dad informs me today that he reads my blog occasionally...who knew? he says the all lower caps throws him...told him it's my style...he just grinned. it was a funny revelation to know he is watchin' over me even in the blog-o-sphere...actually i'm honored.

have a great night.

fall around the house.

as the beauty of autumn has begun to settle in, it is always a joy to decorate around the house to celebrate the changing of the season. fall is so full of color, and richness. there are alot more projects in my head that i want to do around here, but this is a start for now.

this last item is not specifically fall, but it has that feeling for me. the papers used are from scenic route's sonoma...which has a real fall flare. plus, my word for the year is 'love', and i desperately needed a reminder up where i could see it again.

have a lovely day...

another unabashed blowing of my horn...

this came out a few weeks back. and not just because i have a few submisions in there...but the volume is a good one to pick up...found several inspirations in there for everyday, as well as giftables.

and for candace's benefit...you will find me on pages 133 & 153. i have a couple of ladies interested in how to do the trees. that could be a fun class to teach...we'll see. several things in the works currently. wahoo...love this hobby!!!

and in light of the beauty of autumn that is coming up all around us, i put together this simple little hanging piece, an ornament if you will. michael's carries the wooden rectangles in their wood section, and crop-a-dile easily made a hole in the top for the ribbon. the red patterned paper is one of my favorites from the scenic route line sonoma that was included in the september wip kit. great, great kit. on a side note, trish is putting some more together if you are interested...don't miss it. now, back to the 'ornament', the butterfly is felt from heidi swapp. yes, i am an unabashed lover of the butterfly right now, and this one is just as beautiful to me. anyway, the little wood piece is a great little way to use up and show off some of your favorite kit pieces without hiding them in an album.

have a beautiful first full day of autumn (because it could snow any minute now in colorado...)!

photos style recipes

i want this book...

from this...

to this...

the table above was purchased from the clearance center at the broadway in chula vista 18 years ago...for $25...it served as our first kitchen table...
it has been sitting in our garage, as i had not the heart to get rid of it...but it looked pretty ratty...
so..i sanded, and sanded, and painted, and decoupaged...and voila...a project table. i was sort of looking to spend the bucks for a craft project table, you know the ones you can stand up at...i love those...but did not want to spend the moola on that right now...so, i followed my mantra...'if it stand still, paint it!'. so that's what i did. now grant it...the deco part is a little rough. the paper is from cavalini and it's the paris post cards pattern...very cool...i had two sheets of that laying around and paper pieced it to the laminate top of the table. but i was a poor decopager for sure...oh well...i still love it and want to pull some of that blue out for the rest of my unpainted walls in my space.
continuing to build up 'my space' and it is slowly coming together. my daughter was thrilled that the sewing machine is now permantly out for her use at a whim...and i am happy for her.
stay tuned for more 'space' pics as the room comes together.

have a grand evening...

photo card

this photo card was inspired by this at scarlet lime. it's called all things beautiful. well, i modified it quite a bit. used the folded card element. even used the front patterned paper from making memories. as well as implemented the pockets in the top middle part.
the card is for my mother in law, who's birthday was last week...and she loved it. i am always so gratified when she loves one of my creations as she has done elegant crafting work for many years and i am so very novice compared to her.
i used some american craft thicker letters that worked wonderfully with the colors. i simply scalloped some patterned paper for the photo mats. the photo themselves have a glow distort action on them that is very easy to use in pse. you can see the tutorial link on my side bar. love what it does to pictures. if any of you know of some other actions out there you can use on pse please let me know.

you can see the little tags peaking on the top. each of us had a tag that we wrote a birthday greeting on. i should have taken some shots of the tags. used some mm journaling papers as well as ribbons and buttons to embellish. it all just turned out very sweet.

added mm enamel brad, and used the infamous martha steward butterfly punch with some patterned paper.

had to keep the boys kind of manly so used some mm die cut paper in green to frame seth's photo.

have to say this is so much more beautiful in real life...hope the photos lend themselves to inspire nevertheless.

enjoy your day...

tootin' my own horn...

i have friends asking me which one...

so while not trying to toot my own horn

here...this is the paper crafts mag which

hold my first submissions. looks like

holiday vol. 3 is out already too...

i will need to check on that some more.

but anyway...there it is!!!

cupcake love...

found a new little love...which my kids are thrilled about as well...cupcakes! so little. so cute. so easy. so creative...or can be. this is my new little thing here...cupcake of the week...today's is a lemon cream filled sweety with a little zest on top. now i can only aspire to be as creative as bakerella...but it's fun to play and try and eat!
enjoy your day.

good-bye august...

saying goodbye to august is so many things. it's the beginning of school, which to me is really the real new year. it's the closing of the pool, the cooler weather. the reality that the year is slowly creeping to it's end. it's getting back to a routine. it's getting all those wonderful summer memories wrapped up in your mind as well as your memory books. it's planning for next years get-aways. it's focusing on home and making it a welcome place for all the upcoming holidays and celebrations. it's also time to bake when the weather cools down. so...i will be back to post the cupcake of the week...my new little love.
meanwhile, loved doing this august calendar wrap up. what a month!!! this was inspired by kimmithylaine. she designs for a million memories. she wrote up a little tutorial on their board as she has made several of these calendars. great little way to use up some scraps as well as just have a month at a glance. i am going to add this to my repertoire on a monthly basis.

hope to be back later...have a beautiful day.