Angel of Hope!

Hello friends and Happy Wednesday to you all!  I think I'm finally coming out of my sick-fog thank goodness-blech, not fun at all and happy to see it go! But it did snow last night so I'm crossing my fingers (and toes, lol) that the kids are only delayed 2 hrs from school and not home all day.  I know, I know but I enjoy my 5 days a week of quiet to get my work done without the kids arguing, teasing, asking for stuff, LOL.  I know some of you enjoy having the kids home regularly from school but I prefer they be in school during the day as I see them from 3:30 pm on!  I NEED my quiet house-time for my sanity--this is what mom's earn after raising kids right?  They are big kids (teens) now so they are better off in school than home with mom---I'm boring, right?  At least I don't have to bundle them up in snow gear anymore--boy is that a chore getting little kids ready to go outside.  Then as soon as you shove their last boot on they announce that they have to "go potty", lol, and they have to be undressed and then dressed again.  Or my kids would go out for 45 mins, come in and warm up, then go out again and do this ALL DAY--my poor sanity!  I don't know how I got through it!  I always think about one of my fave holiday movies "The Christmas Story" and the mom putting that snow suit on the younger brother and then he can't put his arms down, ROFL, cracks me up everytime.  <see video clip here>  So to all of you with little kids who want to play in the snow, I'm feeling for you right now but do know IT WILL END one day for you too, LOL!

NewsBitz:

-Want to take a in-person Copics Class with me?  I have a few openings for copic classes in Murfreesboro, TN next weekend (Jan.22nd) if you live around that area!  Check www.cmcroad.com for info on those classes and others coming up (I'll be teaching in LA before CHA too)!

-Interested in taking a class on watercoloring with Distress Inks?  Then the fabulously talented Angie Hunt will be able to help you with her Distress Inks 1 Class HERE at the Color Me Creative Classroom.  Sign up before Jan.25th and get a discount on the class as well!

-Blogging and Crafting Friends I am calling on your love, support & generosity once again.  A colleague and friend of ours, Katie Renz found out she has Stage 4 Stomach Cancer over the holidays.  She has always had the sweetest & most sparkling personality and is a very talented designer to boot! She is married and has 3 small boys that count on her and this news has so saddened me, you can read her story at her blog HERE!  The crafting community has pulled together and arranged a fund-raiser for her--you can read about it HERE!  There are 2 ways to donate so make sure to read the post carefully--I hope you take a few mins out of your day to read her story and help out.  Even if you cannot provide any funds for the fundraiser, post the info on your blogs/facebook/twitter to raise awareness, I know Katie would be so thankful!

-I will post the blog candy winner from last week tomorrow :)

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Angel of Hope

After hearing about Katie Renz's struggle with cancer and going through some personal/family events myself with sickness I had to pull out this beautiful angel to use today!  This angel "Angel of Hope" is by Elisabeth Bell for SCACD and it's very special too---everytime someone purchases this stamp (at anytime) SCACD will donate $1 to Breast Cancer Research!  So you get a beautiful image and help out women at the same time--what a great deal dontcha' think?!  If you have a crafty friend going thru struggles with cancer this would be a beautiful gift to give them--a stamp they can use and money toward the cause!

The beautiful papers I used are from Memory Box called "Gossamer"--I love the soft and soothing tones! I wish you could see how soft and sparkly this is in real life--so pretty!  I distressed the edges of all my papers with my Zutter Distress Tool and those pretty angel-wing-like ornaments on each side of my image are by Pink Paislee (Artisan Collection here).  They are cream grungeboard and I actually got the ornament in half so I could put it on each side of my image--but they can be painted, spritzed or sanded too.  I added some stickles to the insides of each ornament for a soft sparkle as well.  The layered flowers are all by Prima and the pearl swirls are as well.

The angel image was colored with copics (RV11,RV10,RV000/E53,E51,E50/E11,E00) very softly to match the pastel tones.  The soft background was done with copics too (BG0000,BG10,W00,E50,YG0000) and I will have a video on how to do this soon, I have to wait until I sound normal again, LOL!  Then I took a couple stamps from my Paper Trey Ink Collection (Text Basics and Vintage Labels) and stamped them very lightly on the edges of the image.  I stamped her wings twice and colored them--then popped them up on graduating dimensionals so they pop up farther from her body as they go out.  They got a nice coat of Stickles and then while the stickles were wet I sprinkled them with Glamour Dust(15% off)--the sparkle is sooooo pretty!  I wanted a bit of sparkle on her gown as well but I wanted it to be soft--so I took my Quickie Glue Pen and traced a few of the lines on her gown and then sprinkled more Glamour Dust on them.  Love the Glamour Dust--well they have NEW Glamour Dust paints out now that are beeee-u-tiful (see this project here) and SCACD has them all in stock HERE!

Hope you enjoyed this post today and I hope you all have a beautiful day!  See you tomorrow with some NEW Kraftin' Kimmie releases!! YAY!