Wow!

I woke up this morning at about 7:30 - I'm trying to get back into the routine of having the kids go to school (which starts Wednesday).  I wake the kids, feed the cat and dog, get dressed and make breakfasts'.  I sit down to eat my breakfast and the phone rings.  

Figures...

I look at Caller Id and see it's my friend Susan.  Well she's already hung up, so I call her back.  She answers the phone...

"CONGRATULATIONS!!!"

My first thought is, "huh?"  Then she says, "You've won the Stampers Quest Trail Blazer Contest!!!"

WHAT!!!!  No way!  I did???  Are you sure??? - All these things are rolling through my mind as we continue our conversation.

But sure enough, thanks to everyone who voted, I have been annouced as the Trail Blazer Contest Winner for Stampers Quest Ezine.  (some people asked me what an ezine is - it's an electronic magazine.)

So, my entry was voted the best representation of the "Quest Theme"!  Wow!  I'm so thrilled!

I won a great prize pack as well as my blog will be listed on the Stampers Quest Ezine Artistic Guides Blog Roll!  I'll also have a spot as a guest designer and join the team with some mothly sketch samples.  How exciting!!!

I've been asked to provide step by step instructions for my card.  I'm going to post those tomorrow AM.  Check back here then.

A BIG Thank YOU to everyone who voted for me along the way. I'm so honored!!

Final Round...

With vacation all week and some other projects I had to work on, I didn't get to my Trail Blazer contest until this AM.  I'm really bummed too, because it's not really one of my best works.  But I had to submit something and I thought it fit into the theme of "quest". 

Yes, it's another scenic card but it's all done with a stencil system I bought while up at Maine-ly Stamps.  The stencil and the reflection tree stamp is from CC Rubber Stamps.  The mallard is by Repeat Stamps.  So this is a little different than the other scenic card.  I had fun with the stencil system.  It was super easy and fun to work with.

I really had a tough time trying to fit into the "Quest" theme but it appears as though I took the project a little too literal.  You can check out the other submissions and you're welcome to vote at the Stamper's Quest Yahoo group:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stampersquestcontests/surveys?id=2545626

Tonight I'm working on some class stuff while hubby watches the football game...

Whale Watching....

For our vacation we decided to stay home.  Mostly Patrick wanted to rest his back and we didn't really have the cash to do anything big.  But the ONE thing I really wanted to do was go whale watching.  And we did!

Take a look at the faces of these kids after we saw some whales!

It was quite an amazing day! Even though it took us about 1 and 1/2 hours to get to the whale but when we did, what sites we saw!  We mostly followed a Mom and her calf.  The Mom was slapping the water with her fins (they told us they were cleaning the barnacles off of them) and the calf was having fun BREACHING!  Yes!  We saw this whale breach about 6 times.  What an amazing site.  We never got a good picture of the breach but several of the splash.  Here are a few really good ones from the day...

Another amazing day with my family.

On vacation...

We're on vacation this week.  A 'staycation' if you will.  Today I took a road trip with Bobbi from Just Imagine Crafts.  She drove me up to Maine-ly Stamps in Kittery, Maine.  I didn't realize that Kittery was only about 2 hours away from my house!  I don't know where I've lived all my life!!!!! 

Anyhow, we headed here:

Main-ly Stamps is an adorable stamp store just North of the Kittery outlets.  We went up there to take a Stampscapes class from one of the owners, Richard.  He was a patient and understanding teacher.  Funny, witty and a great guy.  We made three cards.  I'll have to upload them but not now.  Tomorrow we are off to Plymouth for a whale watching tour.  I can't wait!  And hope the kids enjoy it.  I'm off to get some rest.

Masculine Card...

It's been a busy week here - as always.  With that being told, I didn't get to even start my Masculine Card for the Stampers Quest Ezine Trail Blazer contest until last night. 

...At about 1AM last night. 

I realized at about 11:30PM last night that I didn't have too many manly stamps.  I don't know why.  I have a husband, two boys, a father, a father in law, a brother, even a brother in law (or 2), a nephew, several grandfathers so why I didn't own many masculine stamps to choose from, I'm clueless.  I have the old stand-by Stampers Anonymous car stamp.  It may be an old Ford or other old car I'm not sure.  I love that stamp and even used it for a card I sent my Grandfather earlier this Summer but it didn't fit into the train of thought I had on the card I wanted. 

I really wanted to be able to use one of the sketches I was assigned for the Fall kickoff at My Creative Classroom.  I was going to kill one bird with two stones here.  And I did.

But not until 1AM.

I used the "Wintry Owls" stamp from Memory Box.  Along with a little wood grain paper and some Dark Chocolate Metal and I came up with this:

I think it fits the 'Masculine" bill but I suppose it could be for just about anyone.  I was going to give it to hubby for his birthday next month but while rummaging for masculine stamps, I found a "Rock Star" stamp set that I'll use instead. Yippee!

Don't forget, voting on the Stampers Quest Ezine started today and ends at midnight on Sunday.  This time there are 7 of us competing and only 5 can go on to the next round.  We're almost to the end!  You can click here to vote.

And on Monday, I'll be buying some "Masculine stamps" at Fran's Stampin Up party!  As Caleb says, "Be Prepared!"

The Metal Sampler is ready!

Here it is... my Metal Sampler...

I'm very pleased with it.  This is a class I've been working on.  I just love when something that's in your head makes it to real life and then looks even better than you thought.  I think this class is going to be a hit.  Honestly, this is like having three metal technique classes in one.  OK, you don't learn every technique I do in the Metal Techniques 1, 2 and 3 but you do get to learn many of the basics and become familiar with the metal.

I have two options for you to take part in this class. 

In person this class will be offered on Sunday, September 27th from 12-4 at the Scrapbook Cupboard.  All supplies will be provided and the project will be completed in about 3 hours.  You can sign up for this class immediately.

If you don't live in the area, I'll also be teaching this online through My Creative Classroom starting the following day, Monday, September 28th.  The class will span over three weeks and it doesn't come with any product, just complete instructions.  Registration for this class begins on September 1st.

Visit the sites to find out more information.

Waiting until the last possible moment....

OK, I still can't update you on the other thing from yesterday but I can show you what I've been feverishly working on today...

My class for TONIGHT, yes tonight!  Copic Collection class with Copic Markers using the Air Brush System at the Scrapbook Cupboard.  Here are the samples I made for class...

The card on the left will be the background for a stampscape image.  I made several of these to demonstrate how it's done.  The card on the right uses a Dream Weaver stencil.  The entire coloring of the image is done with the airbrush system!

And then the little mouse in the middle, he's colored in with Copic's and then we use a mask to airbrush the background. 

I finished typing up all the directions (you get complete directions WITH photos in each of the Copic Collection classes!)  And all directions are printed, now to collate and get dressed into some proper work clothes.  Only an hour to get dinner done and eaten before I must leave for work.

Phew.  I vow not to leave anything until the last minute again!  (...for today, anyway!)

Another Thank you!

Another Thank YOU to all those who voted for me in the Stamper's Quest Trail Blazer contest.  I have been chosen again to go on to the next round.  This week's theme is Masculine cards. I think I'll be pulling out some of my favorite stuff for this card.  It's always a challenge to make a Man's card.  Especially if you don't have any particular man in mind when making it.  It could be for your Grandfather, Brother, Uncle, Husband, Son, any number of different types of men in your life and they would all get a different card.  So, I'm thinking that maybe I'll make a card for my husband.  His birthday is coming up next month.  Maybe I can get a jump start.!

I've been busy working in the studio this afternoon.  I've got some stuff to finish up and then perhaps another post tonight.  I've finished a project but I can't post anything here until I finish something somewhere else.  Check back later.

Looking for me, in Rhode Island?

My schedule for the Fall is starting to come together nicely.  It looks like I'll be in several states as well as several different types of venues in the next few months.  This week I finished booking 3 classes at Bella Art in Rhode Island.  These are the classes I'll be offering:

Waxy Cards - Tuesday, October 13 from 6:30 - 8:30PM

With a little wax and some ink you can make easy cards! No special tools required to use this wax either! We'll explore a few different ways to use wax as a resist and create beautiful cards everyone will enjoy.

Bookbinding 101 - Tuesday, October 27th from 6:30 - 8:30PM
 

Let's use a little paper and some chipboard, a little floss and a needle and we'll stitch our way through a bound book! You'll learn the Long stitch and create a neat little book complete with several signatures. You'll leave with a template to create another as well. Once you see how easy these are, you'll make one for everyone! Perfect for journaling ,as a scrapbook and even a gift! You'll have the opportunity to use any papers we have in the store for your covers too!

Winter Canvas - Tuesday, November 10 from 6:30 - 9:30
 

Come and get cozy by the warmth of the melting pot! Kim's heating them up for a fabulous Home Decor Project. This canvas measures 8x12 and is perfect for your home or to give as a gift. We'll use beeswax, UTEE, stickles, glossy accents and more!

If you are interested in taking any of these classes, you can sign up online through Bella Art's website or you can give them a call at 401-383-0199.

I've got some other classes in the works, when they are finalized I'll post and put a link on the sidebar.  I'm off now to do my Copic Air Brush Demo at Scrapbook Cupboard!  I hope to see you there!

Another week, another card...

The Trail Blazer contest with Stamper's Quest EZine continues.  This week the theme was a "Scenery Card".  This is what I submitted:

If you'd like to participate in the vote, you can click here.  My card is number 6 but please, vote for those you think are worthy of the vote. You can vote for 7 cards this week!  There's some fabulous designers in the mix.  It's defintely going to get harder and harder to choose a winner!

*****

If you are around this Saturday and have nothing planned between 1 and 3 PM, come on over to the Scrapbook Cupboard.  I'll be hosting a FREE demo using the Copic Airbrush system.  Specifically I'll be using the Air Compressor.  Yippee!  Hope to see you there!

More Flags, More fun!

Yesterday was our Family trip to Six Flags in Agawam, MA.  We've been several times over the last seven years or so and it's always an experience!  My Mother, Sister and Brother In Law all work for Johnnie's Foodmaster Supermarkets and every year Johnnie's offers discounted tickets for anytime and a special luncheon deal if we go on a certain day.  It's usually a Wednesday in August and this year was no different.

I'm happy to say that Bryce made the entire 2 hours and 10 minute drive there and back without tossing any cookies!  Tiny miracles happen everyday, right?  He wasn't ill at all.  I am so proud of him!  (See, normally Bryce can't even make it to my Brother's house 45 minutes away without us having to pull over).  It must have been the excitement of the day ahead.  Poor Bryce was the girl monster, I guess that's why he made this face...

Bryce went on some of the 'bigger' kid rides this year while Caleb was a little stand-offish about them.  Bryce went on the "Flashback" which is described as "a high-speed coaster that sends you screaming along a twisted track before doing it all again in reverse."   Of course he didn't go on alone but he did make it through the entire ride and loved every minute of it!

A bunch of us went on the Catwoman's Whip, Shipwreck Falls, the Blizzard River and a few others.  Caleb took a little bit of coaxing to get onto the Catwoman's Whip but after he was done, he enjoyed himself.  He wanted to go with Nana and he decided that sitting in the middle was the safest place.  Bryce, the daredevil of the day, decided to sit right up front and made Uncle Mike sit with him. 

Caleb did participate in some of the parks' Monster poses...

Here are a few other candid shots from the day.  These are for you, Gram!

I was able to get a bunch of photos for the Photo Scavenger Hunt I'm participating in.  My friend, Bernadette has put it together and up until this week I haven't taken a single photo for it.  Now, I'm zooming along.  A group of my friends are getting together on Labor Day Weekend to do a slightly different, faster version of this.  It's fun, easy and CHEAP!  If you are looking for something fun to do with your friends, kids, family - this is a great idea.  Most people have digital camera's now - heck my kids even have one - not that they ever use it, but they have one.  For the Labor Day one, I think we'll have to take photos with a 'mascot' in each photo.  What those mascots will be, I don't know yet.  A stuffed animal, a gnome, a puppet, it could really be anything.  Anyway...

We were home last night by 7:30 and the kids and hubby were in bed by 9.  It was a long day but a fun one.

Weekend update...

A BIG Thank YOU to those who voted on the Stampers Quest Trailblazer contest.  I have made it to the next round!  This week's assignment is to do a "Scenery Card".  I'm very excited...  For the past month I've been doing Stampscape demos at the Scrapbook Cupboard so I already have an idea of what I'm gonna do!  Yippee!  I'm relieved too since I've got a busy week ahead of me!

So more about the weekend...  Thank you! to all the lovely ladies who took the Mermaid Canvas Class last Friday.  Eleven gals were in class and no two looked exactly the same.  It's always a wonder to see what others do.  I love it!  Very inspiring.

After class Friday night, I stayed up until 2AM to get a project done.  I needed to bring this project to a meeting the next morning.  I drove down to Bella Art in Rhode Island on Saturday morning and had a business meeting with Maryanne.  Be on the look out for some up coming classes at Bella Art starting in October!  Very exciting stuff!  From that meeting, I raced up to East Bridgewater, MA to do a Stampscape on Stampbord Demo for Scrapbook Cupboard.  I used dye inks, alcohol inks.. even Copics.  The samples are in the store if you're in the area.  It's so easy to do, you really can't go wrong with these stamps!  Almost everything you stamp turns out beautiful!

Saturday night we brought the boys to see Harry Potter.  It's a long movie, huh!  WOW!  I thought there were some comical times in the movie but over all... maybe a little too long.  Although they left out the part about Neville altogether and that's the part I remember the most about the book.  I haven't read the last book yet.  I have it, it just hasn't made it on my list of reading materials yet.  I'm kinda behind on my reading lately.  Too much going on.  Hopefully things will quiet down a bit when the kids are in school.  Speaking of that, only 23 more days until school starts.  But I'm not counting....
 

Vote for me!

I submitted my "Friendship" card to the Stampers Quest EZine contest.  You can go here to see the poll.  I'd love to have your support if you think my card is good enough!  Here's the card I submitted:

Voting will continue until Sunday night.  And don't forget to check out Stampers Quest Ezine. 

Thanks!

Not quite...

My hair didn't turn out strawberry blond.  More like Strawberry Brunette.  Oh well.  Erika passed her test and that's all that matters.

The kids are off to their Grandma's tomorrow - for the first time ever.  So, I'll be at home doing some creating.  Look back tomorrow for more art...

Kim

A few Cards

I finished cleaning off the table in my studio last night.  It had been a long time since I last saw the top of my counter...

Yah, it's pretty sad that the calendar on my table says May when it's August.  Where oh where do I get stuff done?  Well the past few months it's been on the kitchen table but now, I'm back in the studio! 

And I didn't waste any time either.

I made a birthday card for my boss, Bev...

and then I used the same type of design and created another card.  I'm thinking that I might make these into the cards I make for this month's card swap at the Scrapbook Cupboard.  The theme is "thinking of you" or I might submit to the Trail Blazer contest as the Friendship card.  I haven't decided.  What do you think? ...

Tomorrow I have an appointment in Boston to help my sister, Erika.  She's needs a model for a hair color so I'm going in.  I'm thinking Strawberry Blond this time.  Hmmm... we'll see.

Kandi Projects from CHA Summer '09

OK, I haven't heard from the ladies from Kandi yet but I'm thinking that since CHA is over I'm going to be good.  Also, I did a little digging today and it appears there are other Kandi samples out there so I'm not going to feel guilty about sharing...

In June I was sent a package from Kandi Corp with all sorts of new goodies to play with. I did specifically ask for Red, White and Blue Wax as well as some gems. I had this great idea of creating a flag. For Winter CHA I created a few Winter pieces for Kandi and this time, I just was looking for something Summery. OK, I know that Summer CHA is all about introducing Winter stuff and Winter CHA is about introducing Summer stuff but it's just too difficult to think about Winter when it's hot and humid outside.

So the first one I created was the American flag. I masked off each area individually and dripped wax onto the areas. The trick it to not hit the other areas with the Kandi tool. Otherwise, you'll ended up bleeding the colors together. It was a little time consuming but as you can see, it can be done!

The next one I created was a Stampscape card. It's basically a Stampscape scene and then the wax is put on top of the scene. I used the brush tip and the calligraphy tip quite a bit. And I did heat the wax and stamped the water into the water area so that it looks bumpy. The sky is slightly 'watercolory' - I couldn't get much closer to the scene without running the risk of mixing the color of the trees. I really like this card.

The last project I worked on and submitted is the tote bag. Kandi Corp also creates GemStones and their Hot Fix Applicator. Each of their Gemstones comes with adhesive on the back and all you need to do it use the Hot Fix applicator to worm up the adhesive and it sticks right on. So for this tote bag, I stamped a Hero Arts stamp with Archival Black ink and then accented with some pretty gemstones. Really pretty!

I hope you enjoyed them. If you were at CHA last week and you saw any of my projects, I'd love to hear about it.

Trail Blazer contest...

I submitted a card to Stamper's Quest Zine for their "Trail Blazer" contest. Here's the Anniversary Card I made. Inside it says... "All throughout the year, our love continues to grow. Happy Anniversary!"

I was chosen to go onto the next round. My next card needs to be submitted by this Friday at Noon. And the theme this time is Friendship.

If you haven't checked out the Stamper's Quest Zine before, go ahead and take a peek. Here's the link. The August Zine was just published yesterday and there were a bunch of great cards and ideas in it. And they are having a birthday celebration complete with a Party Hat contest. They've been publishing the Zine for one year this month.

I'm just waiting to hear back from Kandi before I post my CHA projects. Hopefully I'll have those for you tomorrow.

Updates and some creations to share!

I've been busy the last half of this week!

On Wednesday, Kerriann and I drove down to Bella Art in Rhode Island to take a class with Dave from Memory Box. We made 10 cards all together, 5 in each class. We did watercolor pencils...

and Prismacolor Pencils....

I'm so glad I took these classes. I learned so much! Although I owned some Prismacolor pencils, I'd never really learned how to use them. Now! I'm hooked. It brings a whole new look to pencils. You're sure to see more cards and projects using them in the future! Now I must research all there is to know about pencils. I'm nothing if not obsessed about learning as much as I can. And I think I'll share my knowledge and know how in a class or two someday! I'm definitely hooked on these!

On Thursday, I got a phone call from my friend, Marissa. She had 4 fabulously awesome tickets to the Red Sox game that day and wanted to know if I was interested. I DEFINITELY was! It ended up that Bryce wasn't so much. We sat in the best seats I'll probably ever sit in (THANK YOU, Marissa!) but it was wayyyy too short. Bryce was on the ground crying, and once he got sticky from some frozen lemonade, he was done. It truly was a shame we couldn't make it through the whole game. I did manage to snap a few pictures of Bryce and Caleb eating. - Which, by the way, is all they did while there. I think I spent $50 on junk food just trying to keep them there and happy. UGH!

They look so deceiving, being all happy here eating ice cream. If only it would've lasted until the end...

Yesterday, I had a class to teach but did nothing but laundry during the day. And today, I worked for a few hours and while I was there I cut class kits. It was kinda strange to cut class kits. I haven't had to do it in a while, Bev has been kind enough to cut anything I need out for me lately. But today, since I was already there working the store I decided to 'kit up'. So, I'm all ready for Tuesday's Waxy Cards!

And I colored all the canvases for next Friday night's Mermaid Canvas...

There's space in Tuesday's class and only 2 spots left in Friday's Mermaid class if you're interested and live in the area. There's lots of Ranger product used as well as some collage, beeswax, real seashells, beads and lace!

Right now the kids are off swimming at a friends. I think I'll take the time to relax a bit.