Paris Love!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Hope you are having a wonderful week. And for those that are suffering thru this BRUTAL COLD SNAP...UGH...I feel your pain here in Virginia.  I'm not a fan of winter and its just freezing out let alone with that darn wind.  I keep trying to tell myself that Spring will be here soon right?  Its starting to stay lighter out longer which I love so that means its gonna get warmer too...please don't argue with me on this...I have to tell myself these things in order to make it thru the next couple of months LOL!  WARM, BEACHES, SUN, HOT, HUMID, OCEAN...that's what I'm talkin' about!  Don't tell hubby but I've had my fireplace on everyday while doing computer work in my chair hee hee...cuz he'll complain...so I run it when he ISN'T around ;)  Anything so my teeth aren't chattering as I walk thru this house and usually have a dog or cat huddled up next to me too.

So I can finally say I feel NORMAL again...ahahaha well that is "NORMALLY ABNORMAL" for me you could say.  My energy level is back up and I've got my energizer-tasmanian-devil-100 mph-mojo back whoooo hooo..its been absent for awhile.  So I've been cleaning, sorting, cooking and crafting up a storm.  I will have some NEW videos up very soon on YouTube...my PC laptop is in the shop getting the charger/slot fixed.  All my videos and software are on that PC so I have to wait to get it before I can get them edited & up.  I've been working on my Mac Air in the meantime which is fine as I have everything I need on it BUT my Everio camcorder software of course LOL.  I have some new classes in the works and a NEW BLOG OMG (shhhh did I say that out loud)...but yes lots of new things in the works.  And NO I am not slowing down, going away or taking it easy in 2013...if anything I'm ramping up what I'm doing as much as I can...whooo hooo heehee.  So expect lots of new newsies, events and such on this blog.

I had a blast at CHA but I was SICK...jetlagged and SICK LOL.  I worked everyday and had meetings and dinners out the wazoo (what is a wazoo anywho huh? lol) so I didn't get to walk the floor like I wanted to.  I was supposed to stay thru Tuesday but hubby had a trip scheduled for his work so I left a day early...then he tells me the day before I leave that his trip was cancelled..ummmm gee thanks.  So if I had stayed I coulda walked the floor but darn airlines wanted $350 to change my flight and oh no that wasn't happening.  But CHA Summer will be in Vegas...and yes I love Vegas...so I WILL be there!  But best thing about CHA is seeing all my crafty friends...never enough time to chat and see everyone but I sure enjoy that part.  To me being in this business isn't so much about how much I can do, how well I do it...but the relationships and friendships.  Those that are my friends, I value them, their talents and enjoy seeing them whenever I can...to me that's the BEST!  And if you get to come to CHA..come by and say HI to me...I love to meet everyone, its so much fun to see everyone in person.  Trust me I'm pretty low-key, I promise I'm not scary at all...ahahaha and if you read this blog you know I veer on the CRAZY-side..all in fun of course!

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Paris Dreams!

 

I was going to color a new image yesterday but my printer was out of black ink..how dare it eh?  So I couldn't print out my digi but will do that today.  So was rummaging around my bin of "to use stamps" (I will NOT tell you how big that bin is bwahaha) when I found this beauty from Stampendous that I had gotten up in London, Ontario this past summer.  One of my dreams is to make it to France and stand in front of the Eiffel Tower..my French is rusty but I will get there one day I assure you of that.  So I saw this stamp and new I had to have it...well my buddy Andi Murdock (who is my BFF, Canadian fellow crazy crafter & on my CMC DT) said "Oh I have that too" to which I replied "well I bet I'll use it before you do LOL".  WELL I AM PRETTY DARN SURE I USED IT FIRST RIGHT MS. ANDI?????? bwahahahaha!

The stamp is a cling-mount stamp from Stampendous called "I Love Paris".  I went heavy on the inking, distressing and vintage...I had a vision in my mind and worked for a long time on this adding/subtracting and trying things until it matched my vision.  The papers are a mix of 7 Gypsies, Graphic 45 and MME.  I used one of my fave tools, my Zutter Distress It Machine...I've used it pretty much everyday since it came out a few years ago.  I used Distress & SU inks to ink the edges of all the papers and image.   The flowers are a mix of Prima & Wild Orchid that I inked...the printed paper flowers I made with my Nellie Snellen punches (I use these a lot to create my own flowers).  The keys are from Graphic 45, scrolls were made with a Spellbinders-Heartfelt Creations "Bella" die, and the black clock die is from SCACD "Alice's Clock Statement" that I cut into pieces to add around my image.  Then some pearls to finish it off nicely.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Craft Room Challenge (monochrome)

Creative Card Crew (girly)

Bearly Mine Challenges (tic-tac-toe/mine is first row down)

Bunny Zoe's Craft Challenge (anything goes)

Make It Monday (anything goes)

Lady Anne's Challenges (anything goes)

Crafty Blogger's Network (flowers)

Created With Love (anything goes)

Paper Playtime (use brown)

I went over parts of the Eiffel Tower with my black Spica pen for subtle glitter, added small pearls to flower centers and colored them with E43,E42,E40 and added Stickles for sparkle.  The postmark stamps I added around the image I got off of Amazon in a fabulous set someone found me HERE.

Hope you like this one...its one of my faves and will take center stage for awhile on my hutch in my studio!  See you back here on Friday!