addicted to flowers

I have an addiction, and it is flowers. It doesn't matter if they're silk or paper or crocheted. I have the hardest time using those from my stash but since I discovered the multi-layered flower, I'm overcoming that hurdle. I spent a bit of time yesterday looking for flower tutorials and found a few good ones that I'm going to have to try before I share them here.

Then I wake up and find out that my friend Pam is having a blog candy event giving away flowers! Head over to Pam's Eclectic Stuff and see all of her beautiful creations, follow her blog and post for entries into a drawing for some gorgeous and glimmery flowers.

Here are some of my recent attempts to overcome my hoarding of lovely blooms:

There Lived a Beautiful Princess - scraps and MM blossoms make this pretty pink 6x12.

Nine is Fine - more MM layered with some paper doily petals and some Prima flowers, as well as some blingy Provo Craft flowers; some Colorbok glitter sticker letters and a Thickers "9" are arranged on a piece of black gloss cardstock that was once part of some bling packaging for McKenna's #9 Birthday card.

Love Heals - I hated to have to make this card, my Aunt was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer and I wanted to send her my best wishes with elegance. Making Memories and Prima flowers on this card which was run through the Cuttlebug. The pink ribbon is some crushed velvet MM ribbon and the stick pin is also MM.

Its That Time Again....

Time for a new sketch at Sketches: Creatively Yours. I used Ali's fabulous sketch for a Canvas which I made for a friend, I didn't know if it would fit my assignment but since it was so helpful in the composition of the canvas, I figured I would give it a try.

I love Disneyland and in Disneyland I love Pirates of the Caribbean... but not as much as my friend DJ. So when it came time for a Christmas gift, I knew I was going to do a canvas and I was pretty sure it was going to feature Pirates.

I created this canvas by first painting a mix of red and yellow then dry brushing some yellow over the top of the dried paint.

Some Pirate paper and ribbon then a couple of detail photos from the POTC Ride. The trap-door was always intended, but it was initially not going to be functional. I later decided to put the Grungeboard hinges to work (the door hides a photo of DJ, my friend Cindy and me taken at Disney). I used glimmer mist and some distress inks on the hinges, key and locking device to get a metallic-yet-rusty appearance. The door is a piece of chipboard from a notebook back that was painted, then inked, then glimmer misted and then inked some more. The skull and crossbones is a Rusty Pickle chipboard that I painted and then used UTEE on. I placed some "ruby" bling as eyes in the skull.

When I tipped the piece (which was being worked on horizontally on my desk the whole time) the door kept falling open so the latch idea was an afterthought. I fastened a loop of ribbon on the main canvas and lined up the latch with the loop so that it will slip through the keyhole. Then I inked and UTEE'd a toothpick that I tied to a piece of twine and fastened to the back of the canvas. It looks kind of like a rusty nail, which is kind of the look I was going for.

Once I sent the canvas photos to Ali for my assignment, I realized I wasn't done with this sketch, even though it was past the deadline. I used the sketch for this cute layout of my cute puppy. Papers are Bazzill, Basic Grey and MM. The stars are a combo of Doodlebug and some Target Dollar Spot brads, the foam letters are Target Dollar Spot items as well.

Good Bye!

We had to say farewell to our sweet girl Dott. She was ill, injured and suffering and we couldn't let her continue like that. Over the past month she'd become a lot less active and in the last two weeks she started having weakness in her hind legs. She took a tumble down some of the stairs and was unable to use her rear legs at all. We made the tough decision to have her euthanized this past Wednesday.

I'd rather not think of those things, instead I'll remember her funny ways:

Her constant need to be petted, which if we quit, she would continue by doing walk-bys and head-butting our hands.

Chasing and playing with wrapped cough drops (cheapest toys ever) but not eating them.

waking us up in the middle of the night spinning her ball in its ring or chasing dust bunnies through the hallway.

Escaping the love of the kids - only to chase after them when they finally gave up.

I'll remember that she was silky soft, with lovely blue eyes and a very regal attitude, she was "Princess" Dott after all.

Dott was born in May either 19 or 20 years ago. She was almost completely white, with a small dot of dark on her nose. We - with the help of my sisters - called her Dott because of this and we had nicknamed her "Splinter" because she looked a little rat-like as a new kitten and reminded Mary (Cody) of the ninja master in the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As she grew and her color started to change, her dot disappeared and left behind it a "smear" of white prompting Cody to start calling her "Smear". These were the early days of Princess Dott. She was then and remained regal and outgrew her silly nicknames.

Dottie was not a mere princess by the time she neared 20 or 21 years old, she had been crowned Queen and she received all the treatments of royalty in her final years.

Fare Well sweet girl!

Sheldon is Featured on Sketches: Creatively Yours!

Ok, so I was just doing my assignment and he happened to be the muse of the moment, but still, he's handsome and deserves a little ego boost, after all, he's being constantly reminded where he belongs in the puppy hierarchy here at home. Poor little guy is so beat down that he cries and chews the walls!!

Oh, wait, that is probably just teething and separation anxiety. He's an active dog for sure.

Back to the meat of the topic, a new sketch by Deanne Burton is up at Sketches: Creatively Yours and I really enjoyed using it to create what will be the first page in Sheldon's puppy book.

The title is made up of 3 types of Thickers stickers and some chipboard dog shapes from my friend Pam. In fact, the ribbons are also from Pam! Thanks sweetie!

This picture was taken the day Sheldon came home with us.

Make sure you stop by Sketches: Creatively Yours so you can see all of the beautiful interpretations of Deanne's sketch, as well as the actual sketch itself! You're sure to be inspired, there's a lot of talent represented!

A New Sketch = A New Card

The card sketch by Deanne Burton - Guest Sketch Artist at Sketches; Creatively Yours was a Godsend when I had to make a sympathy card for a friend.

Sympathy cards are hard but with Deanne's sketch I had a starting point! I used my Cuttlebug for the background of the card and a bunch of lovely things I've been hoarding.

I was going to submit this for my chosen assignment and at that time my computer became infected with a pretty ugly virus and I wasn't sure how long I'd be without, so I asked Ali for a later assignment. I'm kind of glad I got the later assignments so even though my computer was back online with much time to spare, I decided to surge forward with things the way they stand.

It won't be long before I can share what I've done for the assigned sketches and I can't wait. I'm in love with both and even though I didn't get to keep one of them, I know the person who got it loves it! Stay tuned for these reveals at Sketches: Creatively Yours.

Meet Sheldon

Sheldon is 5 months and 11 days old. I met Sheldon at the PetSmart closest to my home (which is still about 20 minutes away) 2 weeks ago. We had gone in for dog food and there were 3 adorable Lab/Pit mix puppies. Two were boys, and there was a girl. The first boy we tried to walk was very uninterested in walking as he had a rawhide treat waiting for him. Sheldon didn't seem to mind being separated from his treat for a quick walk around the store.

I tried to be good, I was not going to be taking him home. I managed to convince myself and I left the store with dog food and no extra dogs. I even managed to go almost two weeks without thinking too hard about him. But as I sat the other night, I was curious. Did Sheldon get a home? What about his brother and sister? I Googled 'Sheldon' and 'Tooele Animal Outreach' and found Sheldon's webpage with a phone number and an email address. I sent an email "Is Sheldon still available?" By morning, I was trying to be patient but I couldn't seem to settle down about it so I called the number listed on Sheldon's web page and left a message. It turns out that Sheldon was still available and more people than just me had started to inquire about him just yesterday. As it happened, my email put me first in line.

We headed over to Trudy's house, (Sheldon's Foster Mom) and made everything legal. It was heartbreaking knowing we were separating him from his sister, but we know our limits, especially with our dominant female Harlee. I am so glad there are people like Trudy and her family - they have fostered hundreds of dogs! The success stories on their living room wall was awesome.

From there, we made a trip to PetSmart for puppy chow and a baby Kong (these things are wonderful for chewers). My mom wanted to meet Sheldon so she came out to see him. We then dropped by Dani's house so that Annabelle and Julian could see Sheldon. When I had told them about him yesterday, Belle told me she wanted to "see Sheldon" at her house (not in the photo I tried to show her) so we had to swing by. She loved running from one end of the yard to another with Sheldon on his leash. She had to hug him before we left. While we were there we met my sisters' new dog Ginger. She's a funny looking little thing with her Dachsund body and Basset Hound feet. But she's a cute little dog, perfect for my sis and her family.

The biggest test of the day was a toss-up between Mickey meeting Sheldon and Sheldon meeting the stairs. I think the biggest would have to be the stairs. Mickey is getting used to this little thing being around. He's still got to be watched, he's barking randomly and being very possessive of his Mom(s). Sheldon's hardly fazed by Mickey but he is NOT happy with the stairs. When we spend most of our time upstairs, this could be tricky. We tried to lay a trail of puppy food on the steps but he's not going past the highest step he can reach with his back feet firmly planted on the main floor... so I am lugging him around after trying pretty diligently.

Currently, Sheldon is napping. He's lying stretched out at my feet on a blanket and he's snoozing contentedly... I think he may get used to the peace of only 2 other dogs around, but maybe it will take a few days or so.