Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #8

I hope you all are having a great weekend. I'm about to head outside to stain our deck, but before I do, I finished a card.

Tonight I'm heading to a party tonight and I needed a card. I used Dawn's color challenge as a starting point (plus my gift has pink it too). Click on the colors to check out the other participates.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but that could be in light of my recent card making funk. I did use crystal effects on the bird. Stamps: Inkadinkado Birds, Ashley's Blossom, Polka Dot Bassics, Damask Designs
Ink: Versa Mark and Chocolate Chip
Ribbon: American Crafts and Twine
Buttons: PTI Brown and Cream
I'll post pictures of the deck tomorrow!

look who made a card.

Yep, that's right, I hung out in my craft room. This card is totally different from my 'norm'. It actually was inspired by a bag from fossil. It had a super graphic print in gray ink on an off white base.

I actually told my friend Mary Anna that I should make a card based on the bag. What do you think Mary Anna?

I started off with my base, Naturals Ivory, and a blocked off area that I didn't want to stamp on. I drew a type of grid on my card, so I could create my graphic pattern.
I used three of the dots from Polka Dot Basics and went to stamping. The only colors I used on this card is basic grey and my black writer. After stamping my card I traced around my blocked off piece and ended up with this:
I added a sentiment from Friends 'Til the End:
So not my norm, but kind of a fun card to get me out of my slump.

In other non-crafty news, my sweet little sister graduated yesterday:
Isn't she cute? That's my whole family... how tan is my brother?

my craft mojo.

So I've kind of lost my mojo. Well, maybe mojo isn't the right word, maybe just my will power. I think my vacation kind of got me out of the groove. So after I finished my invitations, there hasn't been any crafting around here.

What there has been more of is yard work and decorating. Here were my latest projects.

Chase thinks I'm crazy, but I walk through my garage door way more than my front door. So I wanted to make my door and trim look just as good as the rest of the house.

Before:
After (trim and door painted):I still need to do something to the steps, but that will have to come later. My sweet husband Chase hung my new dining room light that has been on back order forever!
Hopefully the crafting craze will come back soon.

so get this....

So, today I went to several yard sales. I'm so into decorating at the moment, that just finding possibilities with other people's 'junk' is so fun to me. So today I'm walking around this fantastic sale, great antiques etc. When I see a ton of scrapbook stuff. I mean a TON. And it was all new. I eventually asked if someone owned a scrapbook store. Any guesses at who the owner of the yard sale....

Jenni Bowlin.


She answered my question, by saying she was a whole seller and showing me her logo. Of course she had no idea that I am a crazy card maker and know all the brands. Here's the conversation:

Jenni: Here's my logo.
Me: (Look at logo, look at Jenni)
Jenni: You might have seen it if you've ever been to a scrapbook store.
Me: Oh no. I know EXACTLY who you are. Ali Edwards was just talking about your paper the other day.

I of course had to call the only person I knew that would be able to appreciate my interesting morning, my friend Kelley. Pretty fun eh?

I did buy several things while I was yard selling today. I purchased two planters, brought them home and immediately spray painted them black. I really like the way they turned out:
Lastly, I haven't been crafting much (well I have it's just massed produced), because I've been finishing these:Do you remember my first mock up here? I made a few changes. I did add some polka dots with versa mark to the background. I also just used the certainly celery to make the bow, rather than both the brown and celery. I think I like it better? What about you?

I'm off to address envelopes!

The Windy City.

Well, yesterday was catch up day at work. I had to work later than I normally do, but it was kind of fun getting back into "normal."

After looking through all of our pictures, we probably took the best pictures the very first day. And we also walked a million miles the first day too. We started off at toast for breakfast (recommended by my friend Mary Anna):
Don't you love that sign? Poor Chase was verbally assaulted by the manager for having a southern accent. I think he was pretty offended, but I think in reality she really liked him. I mean how cute is he? How can you not like him? In her exact words she said, "I didn't notice your accent (speaking to me) but you (to Chase) sound like you should be playing the banjo." I mean a banjo? Listen people, just because you're from Nashville and have an accent doesn't mean you play the banjo or like country music. Just saying.

From toast we took the el to Millennium Park. Can I just say that I love this bean? Why can't we have some cool art like that in Nashville? I heard it quoted while I was there, "Great art can make a city." I truely believe that, and I'm requested some kind of equally cool bean type art here. This is my official request. I'm sure the right people will heed my request.

The pictures look amazing. Do you see our friend Jon waving in the background?
The boys were too cool to do this, so Ashley and I did our own jumping picture.
There wasn't anything going on at the ampitheater, I just thought it looked so cool. I love repeating elements in photography...
After we did the magnificent mile and a lot of shopping... we had.... wait for it... wait for it...Pizza! So good. I loved it. Someone please tell me why they don't make this everywhere. So good. So that was day one... more coming soon.

we're back.

Well, we made it safely back from Chicago today, however our flight back wasn't painless. I had motion sickness the whole time, and to top it off, we were in the air an hour longer than we expected. We did have a fabulous trip. I'll post more about our trip in the coming days, but in the mean time here's one of my favorite pictures:Yes, that's us a Wrigley, and yes we are being rained on. But check out those seats! It was such a fun experience.

Since our flight got in midday I had time to participate in Dawn's color challenge:

My sister graduates from high school next week. My sister is 8 years younger than me, and I can NOT believe she is graduating. I remember explaining to her how old she would be when I would start middle school, and how old she would be when I graduated high school and finally collage. It seems we have passed all of those landmarks that at the time seemed so far way at the time.

Here's the card I came with:

Check out those fabric thickers! I think they are so fun. Of course I had to dye them with my ink pad to get them the right color. I also made the 'A' pink. My sister's name is Alison, so I thought that was a fun touch. I think my sister will love it.

I also have a cute pink butterfly that I just realized I didn't add before I photographed. So please pretend!

Here's what I used:
Stamps: Damask Designs
Ribbon: Ripe Artichoke Ribbon
Accesories: Fabric Thickers, Basic Grey Buttons

off, off and away.

I am leaving tonight for Chicago tonight. So, I will MIA for the next few days. We finally have a packed itenerary! And I couldn't be more excited.

Since I'll be gone I thought I'd leave my fellow bloggers with some reading material. Personally, nothing makes me happier than finding another great blog. So without further ado, let me blog post that I have enjoyed lately:

Bakerella. I'm sure many of you already read her blog, but she is awesome. Love all of her posts. I particularly loved this one. I thought about trying to make them myself, but then I realized I didn't know how to do any of that stuff. Everytime my friend Lindsay and I try to make candy... well it just doesn't turn out well.

Buzzing of a Queen Bee. I just found this blog recently, and well I love it. I especially love these wreathes she's been making. I may not try making cute candies, but I will be trying this.

The Lettered Cottage. This blog has been a long time favorite of mine. I just love Layla, and she's helped me a ton with my own decorating. She seriously has amazing inspirtation ALL THE TIME, but recently I loved this post. I could do that. You could do that. That's why her blog is so amazing. Practical style, practical inspiration. You can't beat it.

In the craft world, we all know about Kwerner, Dawn McVey and Ali Edwards, but there are tons of other great bloggers too.

Lately I've been loving growing a community of bloggers that I visit with via the blog world and share inspiration and encouragement:

Traveling Mama - Her clean style and graphic style is fabulous. Check out this card.

Lynnette at Netters Notable's - We share a love for a 3D textured style (well that's my assesment Lynnette, hope you agree)

Winter Wonderland - Well we both love guys name Chase or Chace in her case! Here is one of my favorite cards from her.

Lawn Fawn Cards - Kelly Marie makes some seriously cute cards! I love this recent one here.

My Front Porch - Kelley is my for real "in real life" friend. I'm the one that got her into stamping and the into Papertreyink, and now she's blogging. I love this card. I'm pretty sure I could hang it in my house and it would look great with my style.

I'm I the only one that feels like they are friends with the writers of their favorite blogs? I hope you had fun visiting some of my favorites, there's plenty more in my google reader. I'll be adding them soon. So if you're a regular commentor on my blog, I'm probably loving your blog too, and I'll be continuing my list soon.

Alright, the next time you'll hear from me, I'll have pictures from Chicago (and stuff from a trip to Archiver's). Until next time...