CAS-ual Fridays- cfc1

Hello there. I hope you all are doing well. I haven't posted in while simply because life started happening. There was some good to come out of it though. My hubby is home after a year long deployment!
But that also means time to move again.

Enough about me, onto it then.

I'm so excited for this challenge, it seems as though I've been waiting forever. I'm glad to be able to participate in this first challenge with CAS-ual Fridays. This weeks challenge is all about the text. Simply submit a project using text.

I got right to it. Here's what I came up with. I'm not great at CAS, but I consider myself quite the wordsmith so this challenge really speaks to me.

I hope you're inspired to try this on for size, if not, just simply do something you love.

Till next time,
Cheers.

Feel free to sign up to follow me! I appreciate the comments and the company. You can also find me at http://www.appreciatingpickles.blogspot.com/




card front




card inside



EASTER Chalk FUN

Hello!
I hope all of you have plenty of fun Easter plans set out for this weekend.
I'm always a little torn because I have children but don't necessarily love the bunny,
Easter egg deal. So we will be attending church and discussing the real meaning of Resurrection Sunday, first.

I woke up today knowing that I wanted to craft but nothing was feeling quite right. I tried scrap booking, but no fit. I tried making a card, no fit. So it wound up being lunch out, a little shopping  and a pedicure. After getting the kids back in this afternoon, I remembered a recent blog post over at DCWV where they had shown the chalk board at home all done up for an occasion. See it here. It  hit me, that's what I'll do, and I did. When we moved into our house, the island was old and crappy and didn't match the kitchen. I got my husband to remove it, but I missed the functionality of it, so I asked him to bring it back and I painted it with Chalk Board Paint, so the kids and I could leave notes or even just play, if we chose so I played today!  So first of all, Thank you to the team over at DCWV for the inspiration and here it is. Hoppy Easter to you all!

SFF041511

Hello out there. I'm excited about this weeks Sketch Frenzy Challenge. I got this great paper from a a friend here on our base and was looking for an opportunity to put it to use. This was a great sketch that I know I'll use again because of it's simple yet great impact, thanks to Tammy Baldwin.
On with it, here is my interpretation of Tammy's sketch:

close up of front of card

Front of card

Inside  of card

I hope you all are simply inspired.
Cheers!

SFF04012011 Sketch Challenge

I love this challenge. It's not often that I see a sketch and know exactly what I want to do. The circle screamed "Sunflower" to me. I love sunflowers in the fall.
This actually came easy!
Thanks to the ladies at Sketch Frenzy for such an inspirational sketch.

This the sketch provided
SFF04012011

Close up of embellishments

Inside of card

Full card

Close up of embossing

I really enjoyed this challenge, if I haven't said that already! LOL...
I hope this inspires someone to do what you love, after all, you're toad-ly crafty 2!

Cheers!

Less Is More Week 9 Colour Challenge



 I'm on time this week, folks. This challenge was nice to do. I tried not to go overboard, it was hard to restrain myself. I wanted to add a little more, but I liken card making to the way I dress. Not many accessories...
Any whoo... The challenge over at "Less is More" is called a hint of red. In my mind a hint is just a slightness, you may even have to look for it, therefore I so enjoyed this and it was quick! I really thought of something I'd like to give my 7 yr. old or even a friend.



Close up of the bottom embellishment

This is my card...





  On with it already...  This card was done with some scraps I had laying around, some pop up adhesive and of course my trusty "Cuttlebug"
I hope you've enjoyed it!
Thanks for stopping by!

SU Class

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Stamping Up Class with A great Young lady named Nikki. I had been introduced to SU a few times and had just made my first purchase of their items from a fellow "Buffalo Sista"... Thanks Jen!
Back to it... So I attended the class with Nikki. I had attempted this card before the class and found out how to really polish it up when I went to the class, so take a look at my before and my after.

These are pics of my creation about two weeks before taking the SU class.

and here is the card I made after the SU class.

Thank you Nikki for a great time and a great Tutorial!


Cheers!

Less Is More Week 8

Of Course I missed the deadline, but here it is! So I didn't technically enter the challenge!

I found this group of ladies through a blog-challenge- friend. She follows them so I thought I'd check them out. Thanks Ulina!


 So here it is, my first challenge with these ladies.

This is the Sketch

This is my interpretation of the sketch

This is the inside of the card

This is the simple yet cute embellishment of the card

I came to a realization while making this card. I appreciate the fuss and heavy embellishment in the work that other people do. For me, simple is what I appreciate most!

So ladies over there at Less Is More, I think I may be here to stay!
Great challenge. I hope it's inspiring...

Cheers!

Military Village Minis

I may not have mentioned the fact that I'm a military spouse. There is a little tradition that we have as wives. A lot of times you're able to purchase these little buildings to set up the community of places you've been stationed.
There is a lady here in town that allows you to come in and make and customize your own buildings.
I LOVE IT!
I spent the day yesterday, doing just that. So here are a few photos of the journey.

The building (blocks) are pre cut. This is how they look with the base paint

This is the mess I was making when I got in the Zone. LOL!

My friend was working on her set as well.
We bumped into an old acquaintance while there. She came in to work on a piece for her home.
Airborne proud!



These are the buildings after I've added my Doors, windows and tent openings...
The tags that I've painted white are going to be attached and used as labels for each building.





 


So here they are, sanded, stained and labeled



Here's a close up of the Village, this doesn't have to be the set up. This won't be my set up. this is only for Photo sake.
I love the BDU building.
I hate my writing  w/o lines!
Oh well...

Just guess who those represent, that's right...
My three pickles!

some of these have tent openings-ish to represent deployments

This was the perfect way to spend such an ugly grey day here in Tn. If you'd like to know how to contact Laura Mercier at Horse Feathers, let me know. She is by appt. only. Thank you so much for a great time and project, Laura.