Where I've Been ... :)

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the emails over the past while! I'm here, I'm well, just not stamping. I thought I'd give you a bit of an update on what I've been doing over the past few months. It's been a while since I've taken the time to stamp and I'm really enjoying the break. No creative juice here when it comes to paper ... I hope it comes back soon! I've visited my mum a few times as well so that's been really nice! I've had a goal of completing a cross stitch birth chart for each of my children ever since they were born. I fell on that goal ... but, I had three of five finished before and now I'm working on the fifth! This is one that I did for my daughter Maria:

It took me a few months to get done. My good friend, Trish, found this pattern for me in a magazine and just knew it would be perfect for Maria! This next one is the one I'm working on. I've gotten a bit more done since this pic, but unlike cards, cross stitch takes forever. Daily updates would be tedious :)

Anywho, hope you're all well too and enjoying what you do, whether it's stamping or any other art form!!! Have a great day!

Renee

Create with Connie & Mary - 186

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Texture Jumbo Wheel
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Marina Mist, Rich Razzleberry, Stazon™, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon, Adorning Accents Edgelits, Dimensionals®, Cupcake Punch, Butterfly Punch

This is my last post for a while ... it's also my last design as a member of the Create with Connie and Mary challenge ... but, onto today's challenge! Here's a new challenge from Create with Connie and Mary! This week, the sketch is rather interesting. All those elements on the side ... I'm a centered kind of girl so this was a bit difficult and I'm not entirely sure I love the result. I'd just gotten the Cupcake punch, something I thought I'd never do ... but I love the idea of making clouds! So, I punched out some clouds and then used them as a mask to sponge some blue ink over the white, added a few more clouds with dimensionals.

Hope you like it and are inspired to create! Please check out the challenge and play along with us over at Create with Connie and Mary.

Hello!

Hey everyone!

I'm sure you've all noticed a serious lack of crafting goodness here ... so sorry about that! There is so much going on in my life right now that stamping has taken a major backseat to everything else. With my Mom's health so uncertain right now, my emotions are running high, my tolerance and patience (generally pretty low to begin with, LOL!) is running extremely low. Time flies by and I have no idea what I did with my time ... We've also been doing reno's in our home for the past 6 months. The basement flooring was put in, trim painted and installed. Our master bathroom is now almost complete and then we begin painting the entire upstairs. It's been a while since we've done that. Wait. We've never done it since we moved in. Imagine 5 kids and what they do to walls ... ugh. Lots and lots of drywall fixing in our future!

Over the past six months or more, all my posts have been prescheduled about 6 weeks in advance - I'd get as much as I could done in one or two days and then not stamp for a month. And I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the freedom from not "having" to stamp. That's when I realised that I'm not having fun anymore. I'm allowing other pressures like being a fabulous artist, being "known", trying to be a great demonstrator ... blah blah blah ... to be all that became no fun.

With that, I've resigned from two very fabulous design teams - Catered Crop and Create with Connie and Mary (at the end of January). Both these challenge sites are AMAZING and I totally encourage you to check them out and play along. The other design team members are absolutely wonderful! I've enjoyed being a part of both teams and am thankful that I was asked to be a part of their special families :) I've also asked to take a small break from ColourQ for the next little while. I really hope I can find the joy in stamping again.

Sooooooo, please forgive the sporadic posts over the next few months. Perhaps I'll find my groove again?

Renee

Create with Connie & Mary - 185

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Apothecary Art
Paper: Whisper White, Everyday Enchantment DSP (SAB), Lucky Limeade
Ink: Lucky Limeade, Peach Parfait, Calypso Coral, Early Espresso
Accessories: Labels Collection Framelits, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals®, Blossoms Punch

Good morning! It's time for a new Create with Connie and Mary challenge. These colours are interesting together! I don't think I'd ever have paired Peach Parfait and Calypso Coral on my own but I really like them together!

All the stamping is stamped off once first, to get a more soft look. The main sentiment panel image is one of the new stamps from the Apothecary set - I inked up the outline of one, and then die-cut it!

Hope you like it and are inspired to create! Please check out the challenge and play along with us over at Create with Connie and Mary.

Create with Connie & Mary - 184

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Three Little Words
Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla, Regal Rose
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake, Regal Rose, Early Espresso
Accessories: Printed Designer Brads, Blossom Punch, Dimensionals®, Heart Border Punch, Designer Button, 1/8" Everday Enchantment Organdy Ribbon (SAB)

It's my mum's birthday today! I made this card as her birthday card. She loves green, so I thought I'd make something along those lines. I used another new stamp set called Mixed Bunch. I paired it with another small sneak peek of a Saleabration (SAB) item - the organdy ribbon. It comes together with the paper that I showed you on last week's CCMC card.

Today's sketch from Create with Connie and Mary helped me jump start this card. It's a cute and simple layout - all those flowers on the pic kind of threw me at first, though! I chose to interpret them with the 5 brads and then one large flower. I heated the organdy carefully to allow it to shrink and get a fun shape.

Hope you like it and are inspired to create! Please check out the challenge and play along with us over at Create with Connie and Mary.