What's new at The Loft - Episode 30

Hi Everyone,

Summer is almost over at The Loft and things have been pretty crazy trying to get ready for school.  School of course then leads to the subject of kids.  I am very blessed and fortunate to have 2 beautiful and wonderful daughters.  This is also a time when I begin to reflect on how time has gone by so quickly.  My older daughter who it seems like yesterday was starting school, is now starting high school, and my baby is now going into second grade.  Where has the time gone?  It has gone by too fast!


DAUGHTER #1 BEDROOM REDECORATION UPDATE

We had faced some set backs in getting the room done, namely in the way of a new bed and furniture, but now that is complete (pictures to come) so now I've moved on to the fun stuff, the accessories!  Sometimes I think my family just humors me with my different modes of creative expression, and that they tolerate this need I have to do something creative to make me happy.  So when I asked my daughter if I could create a piece for her room, I got the typical unenthusiastic "sure" reply.  What I didn't expect was the unprompted and enthusiastic "This is really cool" I got from my oldest daughter when I was working on it, and when it was finished.

Here are some close ups:

Putting my daughter in the piece was a great way to personalize it

I also created this cute wall item for her to hang jewelry from.  I personalized it using her monogram.  The base is chipboard, but I used glimmer mist and a stencil on top of patterned paper, with die cut scrolls.  For embellishments I used Prima flowers, chipboard flowers, small flat rhinestores and rhinestone brads.

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

*Disclaimer on digital ATC cards.  Most, but not all of the digital ATC's here were done with images found openly on the internet for my own personal enjoyment.  I do not own the photos and they have not been reproduced or sold in anyway. 

7/1 "Beach Babe"  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Graphic 45 paper.  The images on the paper are fantastic for making ATC's like this one here made from the "Bathing Beauties" paper from their "On the Boardwalk" collection. 

7/2 ""So Many Men, So Little Time" - A great source of vintage images are the old Saturday Evening Post covers, which reflect a more simple and innocent time in our history.  For this card I've digitally altered it to fit a slightly more mature theme.  One of my biggest hangups when doing digital cards however is the font to use if I put any text on the card at all.  Sometimes when I do digital cards I only want the image, with no text or titles so the viewer can form their own thoughts on what the image is trying to convey.  However when I feel text is necessary the font is what keeps me from getting a card done in a short time.  I have so many fonts that I find it hard sometimes to choose just the right one.  For this card I used 2 fonts, a typewriter font at the top, and a more fun font of the letters inside of clocks, which plays on the word time itself.

7/3 "The Fortune Teller" This was a failed experiment. I was trying to add texture and age to this neat image cut from the French perfume bottle label stickers my husband brought me back from a trip to San Diego he took.  After I put a layer of color on the background using my Neo II watercolor crayons and let dry, I peeled the backing off the sticker and adhered it to the background color.  I gave it a little time for the glue of the sticker to take hold and then put a layer of Ranger Tim Holtz Rock Candy crackle paint.  The crackly paint did not like the watercolor paint or the coating on the stickers which began to crack and flake off.  Of course with the crackle paint you want the crackle but not the flakes, which is of course why I call this a failed experiment.

7/4 " "The Bubble"  I found this great B&W image on the internet of the girl holding this glass ball, and though it would be such fun to play with it.  I had so many ideas on what to put inside the bubble but settled on an image I found online of a ballet dancer in a bright red leotard.

7/5 "Barbie"   I found a great B&W close up image of a girl whose face reminded me of a doll.  I colorized the image slightly and then added an effect to it that made it look like a watercolor painting.  When I was done I it reminded me of the poster for Les Miserables.

7/6 "Princess"  I really love this card, made using the new Designs by Reminisce "Fairy Tales" collection of paper that I piece cut together.  The background is blue Neo II watercolor crayon and I hand doodled the title.

7/7 "Her Majesty"  I loved this great photo my husband took of our youngest daughter Cassidy when they visited the Children's Museum of Charleston, when we were on vacation.  Cassidy loved the museum, especially all the dress up clothes they had.  The only thing that was missing was the crown, which I added in digitally.

7/8 "Elegant Lady"  I made this card using a variety of Tweety Jill collage packs including the "Ladies in Hats", "Travel to Paris" and the "Poultry Party" background paper packs.  I layered the background papers before putting the woman's image on top.  I then added some single buttons and one stacked button for added embellishment.

7/9 "Doodled Flower" This a hand doodled card made drawn on an image of red and blue Neo II watercolor crayon images.  The flower was doodled using a combination of different colored Zig markers and a gold metallic pen.

7/10 "Dreamer" - I made this card using the Tweety Jill "Fashion" collage pack, with images taken from the "Travel to Paris" collage pack and the background taken from the "Poultry Party" background paper pack.


7/11 "Dictionary Flower"  I made this card by taking pages from an old dictionary and tearing them glueing and layering them in various directions as a collaged background.  I then painted over the background with a light layer of a white paint wash, so you could still see the text.  When dried I hand drew the flower using Portfolio water soluble oil pastels, then using a scrap of dictionary page scrunched for the center of the flower.  I love flowers and use them quite a bit in my ATC's.

7/12 "Winter Bride" - I enlarged this digital card a bit so you could see it better. I really love the way this card came out.  I started with a color image of a bride standing mid profile in a park.  I converted the picture to black and white and then added some fill layers an texture layers.  I then went back and added several layers of red at different opacity levels to give the flowers more dimension.

7/13 "Babe" I used this iconic image of Marilyn Monroe as the inspiration for today's card.  I used a free paper sample from Stampington as the background and hand painted the word babe on it using black "Basics" acrylic paint.  I then detail cut the image of Marilyn out of a poster catalog and adhered her to the top with pop up foam dots. 

7/14 "A Walk at Night"  This was another interesting image that I found on the internet that was actually part of a trilogy of images.  I really loved what I was able to accomplish with this image, mainly by taking a smoothed surface of the dress and giving it a ruffled look by adding a plastic wrap effect to it before colorizing it.  I then cut out the original sky and added my own starry night sky.

7/15 "Rosebud Made of Hearts"  I had just bought a new medium sized heart punch and wanted to see what I could do with it.  I started the card by putting down a light watercolor wash on the background with my Neo II watercolor crayons. I then punched several hearts out of red paper and began rolling and gluing then until I formed the rosebud.  I then flattened it a bit for gluing it to the background.  Once dried I hand stitched the stem and leaves.


Well that is all I have for today.  As always your comments are welcome, so please feel free to send me a note and tell me what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and please come back soon.

What's new at The Loft - Episode 25

TOO HOT!!!

I know I shouldn't complain, but it's already too hot here in Florida.  I really don't care for the heat and humidity of Florida, but I'd rather have that then living up north again during winter.  So we endure what we must, but that doesn't mean I don't have the right to complain about it.  As I am writing this (at 11:50 am) it's currently 84 degrees, but feels like 87 degrees, with 65% humidity.  Today's high temp is supposed to reach 92 degrees.  Goodbye spring, hello air conditioning!

Weekends are a time when most of us part time creative type people with a "real world" job get most of our fun stuff done.  At least that's the theory anyway!  I wish I could say my life works that way but for me its not even close.  With the undertaking of the ATC 3.6.5. Challenge, I find I have almost no time during the week to work on any other projects, which leaves me hopeful that on the weekend I can make up for lost time and get to my projects.  Sadly that doesn't really happen either.  Weekends I usually end up running errands or doing my supply shopping for a project, which for me takes entirely too long.  I have too much of a tendancy to browse and wander .  This especially creates a problem when I go grocery shopping as I have a bad habit of putting the frozen foods in my cart first. 

Procrastination and perfectionism and follow through are my other very bad habits.  I get really good ideas but getting started on them for me is the equivalent of a mental block at times.  And then once I do start on something getting it finished it becomes the next chore, as I spend so much time trying to get it just right that I tend to leave a lot of half completed projects lying around, to which my husband can attest to.  I have so many mini books started in the numerous classes I've taken in the last 2 years class, but almost none of them are completed.  One of my other goals for this year is to try and actually complete some of these. 
Home projects of course fit into this as well.  For those of you that read my blog regularly, you may remember that some months back we were working on Daughter #1's room redecoration project.  As of the last blog post on the subject, which was back in early March, we had finished the painting and were ready to move into the fun part of the redecoration, namely the new furniture and bling to complete the transformation, but sadly the project came to a standstill to search for a new bed and furniture.

Hubby then declared we couldn't start any new home projects until we finished the Daughter #1's room, which has left us in limbo for a while.  We are in serious need of some weeding and shrub maintenance in our backyard  and I really wanted to repaint the kitchen.  Landscaping for us is a job we tend to procrastinate over, since it generally means a really big job.  We re-landscaped the entire front and backyard several years ago and were very happy with the results, but sadly we have neglected it and it's turned into a gangly mess. 
Plus did I mention I really don't care for the heat!  So the new around the house projects once again have been put on hold.

I'm happy to report thought that we did make some progress on Daughter #1's room though, as her new bed has arrived and her room has been put back together, now only the new furniture has to be picked out and the rest of the decoration can begin.

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

5/6 "Lover Boy" - What can I say I love recoloring black and white photos of silent movie stars.  I find it's one of my go to inspirations for cards when I'm tired or lacking in inspiration from other sources.  For this card I started with a mixed media type paper given as a free sample from Somerset Studio's magazine.  The photo is of Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres from "The Sheik".  For this card I recolored the card using my Stencil Collection chalk pastels and my watercolor wheel watercolor paints.  I added a little extra bling by glueing some purple rhinestones to the Sheik's necklace and printed the title on my computer at home and loosely cut it out and inked the edges with Tsukineko chalk ink in turquoise.

5/7 "Follow Your Bliss" - The main inspiration for Today's card was MOTW - "Made on the Way" as I knew I wouldn't not have time in the evening to make my card so I made one on my lunch break with materials I found around my office.  I cut the background from a political commentary magazine I had in my desk and adhered it to the card.  I then used my white Uniball pen to hand draw the heart and decorate one side.  I also used a black Zig marker and a red Pentel pilot pen I had on my desk to ebellish the heart more.  I cut the title from a back issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine I  had in my purse.

5/8 "The Things We Do For Love"  I started today's card by cutting a piece of paper that looked like old parchment for the background.  Next I cut the image of the couple on the bike from my Tweety Jill "Vintage Photographs" collage pack.  I adhered the photo to the card at an angle for more visual interest.  I then found this Rub-on from KC &  Company and affixed it over both the photography and background.  The title was cut from some Theresa Collins paper.

5/9 "Mother's Day" - Not to be selfish but I sacrificed a little art so I could enjoy the day with my family.  So I made a simple card to honor all mom's, since there is nothing like a mother's love.  The background was cut from stock parchment looking paper, and the image was from the Tweety Jill's "Vintage Photographs" collage pack.  I added a stamp at the bottom and some clear backed letter stickers to the side.  Not the most of artistic of cards, but conveys the message I wanted to send.

5/10 "Love U"  For those who saw my last post you may recognize this Prima paintable paper that I used to make a Mother's Day card for my mom.  I love this paper which is textured like a heavier stock watercolor paper, and as the name conveys, it really does hold up well to paint.  I painted the card using Neo II watercolor paints, Liquitex "Basics" acrylic paint, Zig markers, and a white Uniball pen.  For the title I simply made small boxes around the letters for the title Love U that are printed on the paper.

5/11 "Can You See Who I Really Am" - My inspiration for todays card came from my Grafitti Chic class I've been taking with Alisa Burke.  For the lesson I was reviewing that day Alisa taught us how to make handmade stencils from photographs.  I found a photo on the internet and cut my stencil.  I then cut a background from a free sample of paper I got in a Sommerset Studios magazine and adhered it to the background.  I then placed the stencil on the background and using Tsukineko chalk ink in black, dabbed and smeared the ink on until I filled in all the cut out areas on the stencil.  I then hand wrote the title in a black Zig marker.  For those of you who are good with faces the photograph that I used to cut the stencil was one of Jessica Alba.

5/12 "Tres Chic" - My inspiration for today's card was a dress mask I cut a long time ago for a birthday card I made.  I kept the mask thinking I would use it again at some point.  I started the card by choosing a background with some text in it and laying down some yellow paint from my Adirondack paint dabbers  Once dried I used the dress mask to cover an area of yellow, and using a red Adirondack paint dabber covered the yellow area not hidden by the mask.  Once the red was dry I used a black zig marker to outline the dress.  From some scrap paper (manufacturer unknown) I cut the title, and little pink flowers.  I added some bling to the flowers in the form of purple rhinestones, and glued all of this down next to the dress.  Lastly using a black Zig marker I doodled some designs on the card.

5/13 "The Pirates Treasure"  Thanks to Johnny Depp, who doesn't like a pirate!.  The Tampa Bay Scrapbook Treasure Hunt is a big deal every year here, and one local scrapbook store "Scraporium" knows how to do the event up right, complete with their very own Captain Jack Sparrow.  As a thank you to the participants of the hunt and their regular shoppers (myself included) they offered a pirate themed make and take.  Sadly I didn't have time to do the make and take at the store so I took my kit home and promptly forgot about it until I was going through some of my stash the other day and found it.  I can't really tell you about the manufacturers of the items in the card, as it was a premade kit, but I can tell you that I distressed the red paper with a sanding block before gluing it down to the back, and that I used a black Zig maker to make the map, and used a gold metalic Gelly Roll pen to highlight the treasure chest. Sorry I don't have more information on this one.


Well that's all I have for today.   Please feel free to leave your comments and don't forget to come back soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

What's new at The Loft - Episode 12

P.S. on my last post "Farewell Vancouver 2010"

In my last post I stated that I wasn't dazzled by the Vancouver opening ceremonies but I completely forgot about the fantastic performance of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah by K.D. Lang (click to watch the video) of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.  I've been a fan of hers for a long time.  She is an incredible singer/songwriter with a voice like no other.  For those who have never seen or heard her before, this was a great venue to showcase her amazing talent.

A.T.C. 365 Challenge update

Daughter #1 wanted to get in on the action of rating the cards so for the month of March, we will be switching to an A.R. format (Ashlyn Rating).  So after each description it will show a Ashlyn's rating for that day's card on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

My card from 3/1 is called "The Reveler" and for this card I tried a different technique to create the background.  I used some of the scraps of Glimmer misted coffee filters that I used to create my card "Spring Flowers" from 2/24 (see posting for Episode 10).  I cut these scraps into small square and rectangular pieces and layed them down onto the card, similar to how they teach kids to make paper mosaics in 1st grade.  I glued the filters down in no patricular color pattern, and allowed the pieces to overhang the edge of the card.  When dried I trimmed the filters to fit the card.  Next I took gold Cat's eye ink and inked around the edges of the card.  I then detail cut the image of the Mardi Gras reveler from a magazine and glued her on top.  I then stamped the Fleur de Lis in black in at the bottom, and topped off the card by spraying pearl Glimmer mist over the top for a little extra shimmer. A.R. 3.0

My card from 3/2 is called "Hotel de Paris".  To make this card I started with a playing card that was lightly sanded for better adhesion, and cut the image of the Arch de Triomphe from the Tweety Jill "Travel to Paris" collage pack and adhered to the playing card as the backgroung.  I then inked the edges with Tsukineko Versa Magic chalk ink in midnight blue.  Next I then cut a small tag with my Cuttlebug die cutter out of some Tweety Jill paper that looked like old parchment. I inked the edges of the tag with Distress ink in walnut and used Tsukineko Versa Magic chalk ink in aqua and red and lightly added a little color to the top of the tag.  Next I used some sepia ink and stamped a french postal type stamp to the upper right hand edge of the tag an black ink to stamp a small postage stamp on the bottom left of the tag using an imperfect stamp method.  The title was cut from some DCWV travel paper and glued down.  Lastly I punched a hole in the bottom right of the tag and inserted an Eiffel tower brad, and tied some blue ric rack ribbon to the top of the tag.  The tag was then adhered to the card with some pop up dots.  Finally I stamped a Fleur de Lis on the bottom left of the card.  A.R. 4.5

My card from 3/3 is called "Country Kitchen" and I started this card again with a playing card as a base.  I lightly sanded the card for better adhesion of the glue and cut a piece of background paper from my Tweety Jill paper pack that looked like old distressed paint.  Next I inked the edge of the card with Distress ink in fired brick.  I then cut a small advertisement for pears from some Graphic 45 paper (Domestic Goddess collection) along with some small squares of fruit that were on the border of the paper.  I glued the advertisement to the middle of the card at angle, and the fruit squares were glued at the bottom.  Next I stamped the chicken wire stamp from my Tweety Jill "Poultry Party" stamp collection with black ink at the bottom over the adverstisement and one of the squares.  I next took a vellum wire rimmed tag and inked the inside with Distress ink in tea stain to age it, then stamped the round design with a another stamp from the Tweety Jill "Poultry Party" stamp collection.  I topped the tag with some brown checked ribbon and adhered it to the card with glue dots.  Lastly I detail cut the cherries and adhered them to the card with pop up dots.  A.R. 3.5

My card from 3/4 was called "Eyewitness to Tragedy"  and for this card I tried something a little different.  My normal process is that I find an image or background I like, or a technique I want to try and build from there.  For this card I pretty much started out blind, other than I knew I wanted to do an altered art piece.  I began by painting the background of the card with red Basics acylic paint.  I then found the image of the girl and glued her to the card.  I didn't really have a concept or plan yet so next I dry brushed white paint on the image of the woman and then did a little outlining with a fine point black marker.  When I went to do one of the eyes I really messed it up, so I took my Crop O' Dile and punched a hole where her eye should go.  In looking at all my brads and eyelets I found the camera and thought that might be neat but I still didn't have a clear plan.  As I was doing this my daugther pulled out a decorative button of the Twin Towers and the lightbulb went off.    Immediately the concept became clear.  I've never been one to do pieces that have a lot of symbolism  I'm not that deep a thinker and take a more the straight forward approach to my projects, but when the concept revealed itself this card became all about symbolism.  The camera is one of the tools used to capture the tragedy, the white covering the woman is no longer paint, but became a woman covered in ash, the towers which stood so tall, and the red of the background now symbolizes the fire and blood.   As one of many thousands who were so changed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001 this served as a reminder even to myself that it doesn't have to be the anniversary of that tragic day to remember the fear, loss and devastation we shared as a nation. Something as simple as a decorative button can remind us to "never forget"   A.R. 4.0 (since Cassidy finding the button served as the inspiration she rated the card too.  C.R. 5.0)


Update on Daughter #1's Room Redecoration

As promised from my last post, here are some pictures of the room with the second coat (the dark purple) that we put on the paintable wallpaper.

It's hard to see the white chair rail moulding separating the 2 new colors.  This is going to be repainted soon, most likely in black, but possibly a dark gray.

Here's what the new walls look like together with the new comforter, which was the inspiration for the new color scheme.  It's a reversable comforter that is all black on the other side.

Ashlyn posing next to the new wall color.  I think she is starting to like how this is coming along.  

Visual Poetry Photomanipulation Week 4 with Susan Tuttle

I just completed my assignments for my last week of this great class.  It has been a fantastic experience and I've learned so much.  I can't wait to apply some of the techniques learned to some of my other photos.

Lesson 1 this week was called "The Significant Object", and it was about how to apply a selective recolor to bring color back to an area or object after a color photo has been turned to black and white to draw the eye to one place or object.  I had taken a previous class in some digital photo techniques, but Susan's method was much easier and I think provided more dramatic results.   

Here is my before photo

Here is the after photo

Lesson 2 this week was called "Faux Midnight"  and it taught us to create a photo that gives the subject the appearance of being night time with a moonlit illumination. I'm not sure I was entirely successful in the application of this lesson, but I was happy with the photo results even if it didn't exactly come out like the lesson intended.  I definitely didn't take the photo as dark as I needed to in order to achieve the true faux midnight feel, but I liked the dramatic change in the photo.

Here's the before photo

Here is the after photo

Lesson 3 was called "Landscape Atmosphere" and taught us how to create mood and atmosphere in landscape photos.

Here's the before photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the after photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This class has been such a great experience and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a basic knowledge of Photoshop Elements.  Susan Tuttle is a great teacher and if your interested in learning more about her you can read her blog here or you can visit her website here.  I can't wait for more of Susan's classes.

 

To see more photos that I've changed using some of Susan's techniques or to just see some of my other photomanipulation work please feel free to visit my flickr page. 

 

Well that's all I have for today.  Comments are always welcome so please feel free to drop me a line.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!

What's new at The Loft - Episode 11

Farewell Vancouver 2010

On the whole the games were great to watch, and our athletes did great.  I wasn't dazzled by the opening ceremonies like I was for the Beijing games, but the human interest stories NBC presented really highlighted not only what a beautiful city Vancouver is, but Canada itself.  I grew up on the boarder of Canada, and I felt a new found appreciation for the country and it's people.  To my regret I decided to not watch the closing ceremonies, instead I watched the gorgeous Rupert Penry-Jones in "The 39 Steps" on my local PBS station.  I didn't regret watching the movie as it was really good, but I should have set my DVR for that and watched the closing ceremonies, since it had Michael Bublé AND and he was dressed like a Mountie. You can't get any better than that!  If you were a fan of Due South you'll know what I mean.  I was glad I was able to catch a video of his performance the next night though. Click here to watch the closing ceremony video.  All this just added to my excitement of going to see Michael in concert on March 13th, which was a wonderful birthday gift from my hubby.

Sadly now though the Olympics are over, which means there won't be any curling to watch for a while except for some odd match being played on one of the sports networks in the wee hours of the morning.  (Side note: check out this video of Michael Bublé being taught how to curl ).   I'm sure if the US team had done better things might be different, perhaps instead of graveyard shift curling it may have been bumped up a notch to a shot on a Sunday afternoon on a one of the lesser watched sports channels.  But sadly the US team men's and women's team didn't just do badly, they were down right awful.  Beyond the US teams disasterous performance, some great curling was played.  The Canadian mens team was awesome, and played with great skill and precision.  What a treat to watch!  And who could forget the funky pants of the Norwegion mens team.  Love it!  Hopefully the overall higher profile of the sport during the 2010 games will bring more fans on board.  I can only hope as 4 years is entirely too long to wait.


ATC 3.6.5. Challenge Update

Still going strong with my ATC per day.  2 months down and only 10 more to go.  LOL!

My card from 2/26 is called "The Queen".  This was such a fun card to create.  First I started by cutting a background from a scrap of Websters Pages vellum.  I then detail cut the curtains and the child from a children's book called Tea for Ruby.  The book was written by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.  I don't normally approve of cutting up perfectly good books (old falling apart ones are ok), but the illustrations in this one were wonderful and the book was free ( it came in a box of Cheerios).  I decorated the curtains with some Neo II watercolor crayons, adding only a little water in some spots making the color deeper in other areas.  Once dried I glued it down on top of the background.  I then close cut the little girl and adhered her on top of the curtains with some pop up dots.  I then cut the title out of a page of the book and also adhered with some pop up dots.  C.R. 5.0

My card from 2/27 is called "Music in my Heart" and was made starting with a playing card as a base.  I next sanded the card to distress it and give it a little more tooth to hold the glue.  Next I took a piece of striped paper for a KC and Company paper pack I had and cut a strip and inked the edges in Tsukineko Versa Magic chalk ink in gingerbread, then I added some Distress ink in Walnut ove the top of the chalk ink for a little more pop.  The strip was then glued onto the card so the stripes were displayed diagonally.  Next I ripped a strip from some red polka dotted paper and inked the edges with Distress ink in fired brick.  I glued this strip down in a vertical line along the right edge of the card.  Next I detail cut the lady from my Tweety Jill collage pack and glued her on top.  I then topped it all off by stamping the musical notes on top in black ink.  C.R. 3.5

My card from 2/28 was called "Beware of Pirates" and is the product of a Tweety Jill, make and take at Scraporium, a local scrapbook store, for the annual Scrapbook Treasure Hunt here in our area.  Jill was on hand herself to conduct the make and take, so I took my youngest daughter along for some creative fun.  We started with a playing card that was covered in Tweety Jill collage paper with a  tall ship on it.  I then took a small tag and inked the edges with some brown chalk ink and brushed a light blue ink in in the center of the tag.  These tags were great because they already came in a aged tea stained color.  Next I stamped a small sea horse in an orange color ink and a star fish in a brick red ink onto the tag.  I then stamped some words in black at the bottom of the tag, and the round stamp at the top in black ink. I topped off the tag with a gold ships wheel.  The tag was then adhered to the card with pop up dots.  The skull and cross bones where then detail cut and glued down on the other side, and I added a red sequin to the eye.  C.R. 5.0.

After the make and take Cassidy had her picture with Captain Jack who was hanging out at the store during the Treasure hunt.

Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for our youngest daughter Cassidy over the weekend.  It was her 7th.  We invited a small group of friends to Build-A-Bear for a beary good time. I can't believe I just typed that.    Here's some photos of the fun.

The Birthday Girl

Party Time

Lining up for the autograph bear

Daddy Dearest

Big Sister Ashlyn

Cassidy with her new friend, Hello Kitty

Update on Daughter #1's redecoration project

With the wallpaper now, we decided on a color and got the paint.  It's a dark raspberry.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like after the first coat. 

We learned some very important lessons with this part of our painting job.  

     First:  Frogtape's green painters tape is great for walls, not for wallpaper or moulding.  It will take the paint off the moulding, and sticks to the wallpaper too much, and actually ripped it in some places.  Althouhg it probably would have helped if I had read the "How To's" on their website first. 

    Second:  Pad type edgers are useless on paintable wallpaper.  Since there is no tooth to the wallpaper all it did was smear paint instead of actually painting anything. 

   Third:   We learned that it was better to put a coat on and let it dry, and then go back over to get the spots you may have missed.  Again because there is no tooth to the wallpaper you can't touch up spots you've missed while the paint is wet,it just smears.  Once we let the first coat dry we then put the second coat on, but I'll post pictures of that next time.

I've also just finished my photomanipulation class and will share my final photo's with you next time.  As always your comments are welcome so please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!