Another Birthday gone!!!

I turned another year older last Sunday and was able to take a trip to Miami with a girlfriend.  We had a great time.  We drove down in my new little black truck, yea!  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Miami,  where I won a three day stay at our company Christmas party last year. It was in downtown Miami.  We were on the 23rd floor.  We could see the pool from the window out of the lounge on our floor.  I was a bit disappointed that the pool did not ever get any sun.  The other hotels all around it are like 40 floors tall or so and the only sun it can get is over head around noon time.  Anyway, we cruised down US 1 and checked out some flea markets and whatever ever else we could find the first day.  The second day we went over to Miami Beach.  It was pretty cool, and pretty crowded by the time we left.  We went to the beach and played in the water a bit, shopped around and had some lunch.  Then that night we went for our fine dining experience.  The lobster was fabulous!!!  Two huge tails, YUM!!!  That's been my birthday present from me to me for the last few years. 

  See, told ya the buildings were tall

Even all along the beach

It was a great experience.  Not sure I would ever go back, it is a very different culture down there, but it was nice to see it!

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend,
Hugs,
~Jody

Got Them............

My Creative Chemistry 101 Graduate Apron, is one of them.  It was in my mailbox yesterday when I arrived home from my monthly tea party yesterday afternoon.  Love it!  The ties on it are different from any I have ever seen, a Tim Holtz original, for sure!  May have to gussy it up with some Tim Holtz goodness too, that's a project for another day I suppose.

Also was able to get the new Spring 2012 series stamp pad set too.  Great colors here, let me tell ya.  Love them, ALL!  The Feathered Peacock will be a fan favorite, for sure.  I'm a bit partial to the Shaded Lilac and the Squeezed Lemonade is the perfect shade of yellow for spring.  Can't wait to use them.

 I was also able to get most of the new reinkers as well.  They were already out of three of them when I arrived. Guess which one went first???  You got it, Feathered Peacock.  My LSS will call me when their new shipment arrives. 

Well, I'm off to the flea market to see what kind of vintage treasure is out there for me today.  Wish me luck!

                      Happy Mother's Day!
 
to all the moms out there today, male and female, I hope you have a terrific day and that your family shows you just how much they really appreciate all the things that you do for them!

Hugs,
~Jody

Graduation Card

Have I mentioned how much I don't like the new blogger post thingy.  I will never understand why they have to fix what's NOT broken, lol!

Anyway, just wanted to share with you the card I made for my daughter's graduation.  I didn't get to finish it the night before but I was able to get it done in the following couple of days, so I mailed it to her with a surprise inside (what starving college student doesn't love a $20 bill).  I had already spent plenty on her so didn't want to go overboard. 

But, I thought the card turned out pretty good.  She likes the Tim Holtz gears so with that in mind, this is what I came up with.  Oh, ya, she likes the color green too, it matches her eyes.

I would hope she has already received it since I know she reads the blog, although I would have thought she would have said something but you never know. 

Thanks for checking in on me, hope you have a great Friday,
Hugs,
~Jody

My Daughter's Graduation

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of a time for me.  My daughter graduated from college at USF-University of South Florida yesterday, YEAH!  So very proud of her!  Life has been a huge struggle for her the last few months and she's come close to losing it a couple of times but she has persevered and made it through to the big day.  Hopefully life will get easier as time goes by but I just wanted to give a big shout out to her to say 

                                                 "YOU MADE IT"!

                   and I Love You So Much!!!!!

March's TH Tag

Hey bloggers, welcome! Today I wanted to show you a tag I did for the Tim Holtz March 2012 tag. I used black embossing powder instead of the 'cement' looking one that he used. I didn't have that one and wasn't sure I wanted to purchase it because I didn't think I would ever use it again. I didn't care for the look of it on the butterflies. It was a tedious task to make all those little pieces of paper and get them to all fit together, therefore, I only made one butterfly. I also didn't have the wood grain stamp but I did have some wood grain paper so I just covered my tag with it and stamped the stamp right over the top. I stained the seam binding with dusty concord and wild honey to match the paper I used from one of Tim's paper packs. It turned out pretty cool I think. I found this really cool necklace at a garage sale last Sunday morning that had all these metal findings on it, butterflies, heart, flowers, etc. for $2. I used one of the butterflies at the top of the tag with one of Tim's jump rings. Gotta love those garage sales!!! Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a terrific Tuesday, Hugs!!

Spring has Sprung.....................

I planted a lily in my backyard last fall, one I had in a pot from my other place. I hoped it would grow and bloom where I planted it and yes I was right, it did come back and as beautiful as ever. Yesterday I noticed it was about to bloom........... Then this morning just as the sun was coming up, I noticed that it had started to bloom.......... And this afternoon, after it had full sun, it bloomed all the way. It is so beautiful! My favorite flower, the lily. I really like the stargazer lilies the best but this one is every bit as pretty. Enjoy!

April's Tag

Had a little time this evening so I was able to get the Tim Holtz April Tag done. I don't have the new bird/branch die yet so I used the branch tree die and the little bird. I cut it back a bit so there was room for the bird. I used the music reverse stamp on the embossing folder and it turned out really good. I didn't have the new word bands yet either but I found a close match in my stash. I think the whole thing turned out awesome, what do you think???

Easter Cards

Well, it's about that time. Easter is next weekend and so is my daughter's birthday.

I made a tag last week inspired by Tim Holtz but I needed a couple more (reasons to use those cute little bunnies again, lol) Anyway, I made cards for these last two to send out to family. I was able to cut some grass on my Cricut (have you heard about the big lawsuit going on between them and SCAL-Sure Cuts A Lot-looks like Provo Craft won that one-no more SCAL) I used two different colors of green so my grass had some dimension and I sprayed the base card with heirloom gold after I embossed it. Then I attached a easter snippet from Tim's lost & found seasonal paper pack to each one that I had roughed up the edges on and inked with vintage photo. Then I attached one of those little bunnies to some grungeboard cut separately with my Vagabond. I inked the edges of them as well and then I roughed of their edges with Tim's scratcher tool. Those bunnies look so soft and fuzzy you almost want to hug them, lol! I think they turned out super cute, what do you think?

I added a happy easter banner down below that I made on the computer and I also added the bows to the bunnies covered in copper glitter. That obviously happened after I took the photo, oops! On the inside I put a little sentiment (which I also forgot to take a shot of) that says

Bunnies are darling, so soft and so small, but I like the chocolate ones the best of all!

Too cute! Hope you like them and I hope you get all the chocolate bunnies you want, Hugs, ~Jody

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Ten

The last day of class, alas, all good things have to come to an end, oh darn! Maybe he will offer some more classes online, that would be cool, hugh!! Anyway, the last technique Tim shared was called Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I have never used stickles this way before. He had us spread it over the whole tag. It left a sparkly kind of sheen over the tag, he said kinda like glass fragments would look. I may try this over some easter eggs, that sounds pretty fun, hugh?

Rock Candy Distress Stickles Technique

There will be a follow-up class on Monday probably where he will show some of his favorites from the gallery. There are so many! Anyway, see ya Monday! Hugs, ~Jody

Creative Chemistry 101-Day Nine

Day 9 had some pretty cool techniques on it to. The Perfect Distress Mist technique I had kinda tried before. Some one had given me a set of PearlEx powders a few years back and I had mixed some with water and spritzed a couple of projects before. I have never added them to reinkers though so this was a good one to try. I played around with the powders and the reinker colors and this is what I got. You, of course, can't see the shimmer from the photo but it looks pretty cool, kind of Eastery colors, I thought! The second technique, Perfect Distress Technique was a really cool one. I especially liked the way the distress ink wicked out from underneath the powder. I over did the misting on mine (or wasn't fast enough with the heat gun) but the technique is still visible. I will definitely use this one again. Very Cool!!! The third one for day nine was a Perfect Splatter Distress technique. Mine didn't turn out as good as Tim's did but it will work for the demo. I like the white parts of Tim's so I will have to perfect my style on this one.

Perfect Distress Mist Technique Perfect Distress Technique Perfect Splatter Distress Technique