MFTWSC147- You are Spooktacular

Recently while visiting my nieces,  the conversation of the "craft room takeover" was brought up. While explaining how I haven't crafted any cards due to this, my oldest niece says to me "Yeah I know, I got a store bought card for my birthday this year,  it was weird."

I couldn't help but laugh at first but then I got the point :).  So since I am sorta on roll I made both my nieces cards for Halloween this year.

One of them is from this weeks My Favorite Things sketch challenge, which just so happens to be one of my favorites stores right here in my town as well.  I recently made a visit to their boutique, picked  up a few things and participated in a class.  (I'll post what we did later:)

Anyway here is what I came up with.  Love these little witch legs.

Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie Cardstock, SU Black Cardstock, SU DP Halloween

Stamps: MFT Halloween Sentiments, Smart Craft

Accessories:  MFT Fishtails Dienamics, Kaisers Black Pearls, Ribbon, Copics

Thanks for stopping by and oh yeah, there is still time to play along! 

Mojo Monday 316

Well I guess I found some mojo and what a great way to get started than with a Mojo Monday Challenge. And yes it does seem that I always start back up around this time of year.  Why?  Likely because I love Halloween and I just love love this stamp set by There She Goes-Hauntingly Delightful.  The characters in this set are so cute.

I made this card for my nephew.  It reminded me so much of him and one year he actually was a Dracula. 

There is still time to play along with this challenge so find your Mojo and get crafting! 

Paper: SU Black and Perfectly Plum,  DP K & Company

Accessories: MFT Dienamics woodgrain fence diecut, Nesties, Copics 

stamps: TSG Hauntingly Delightful 

Where art thou?

Oh my poor neglected blog –LOL.  Well what I can say…..   no excuses just life happens?  The battle of the “taking over” the craft room continues. Good news/bad news although my husband remains shacked up in my craft room just about finishing one degree he has about 14 more months for his last degree.  He has offered to co-habitat in there but I just cannot get the creative juices flowing with him in there.  Who knows what I mean?  It’s a whole mindset for me.  I am really proud of him and it’s just the price I have pay J. 

  

I sorta did take up  a few more hobbies... I redecorated my office, fostered a few pups from lab rescue, become an essential oil distributor, finished a plan for redecorating our bedroom, was a part of an innovative teaching experience for folks within my industry in health care and guardianship, brushed up on my nursing skills and worked worked worked. 

I also squeezed in a few trips to the MFT Boutique.  Love that place!  Great products, great classes and Kim has done an amazing job with the decor. 

This was the first summer that we actually didn’t play a whole lot.   This was also the first summer without family-kids L .

The end of last year didn’t make the beginning of this year so great either.  After being blessed with my sister ‘s family moving closer to us in  late 2011,  we suddenly had to say goodbye to them  Christmas 2013 as they relocated to Texas.   Although it’s not forever it’s just not the same being far apart, I truly enjoyed having my nephew and sister here. Being able to be a part of my nephew's "growing up" was awesome since I missed so much of it in his beginning years.   It was definitely short but sweet,  I guess I just have to be grateful for the time we had together and I realize that everything happens for a reason.

We also had to say good bye to our beloved lab Dexter around this same time.  After returning from a trip in NYC during the holidays on Christmas Eve, he suffered a severe seizure and just could not rebound.  This was such a shock to us as he had just been to the vet reporting for his age he was in great shape and with  no health issues.  Again have to be grateful for the time we had with him. 

Oooh yeah so the lab rescue thing.  After sending Dexter over the rainbow bridge my husband was adamant that we were not getting another dog as Dexter was too special to replace.  I agreed this was true, however when you go from a barking household to a non- barking household, its deafening.  So I convinced him to let me foster.  Problem solved right?  Well in comes Tucker.  After about three weeks and understanding this little guy Scott and I quickly realized that if we adopted him out he potentially could be bounced around from home to home. First rescue and we failed!  He is very sweet and lovable but due to his past he has a lot (I mean a lot) of separation anxiety.   We have lost 4 blinds, 2 pair of shoes and a pottery barn rug.  Tucker is with his forever family and we are happy to say he has come a long way but still has a ways to go. 

I am also happy to say that we have placed 3 (well really 4) dogs in their forever home.  One pup was placed twice.  This experience has truly taught us a lot.  I never knew how much of a softy my husband really was.  

Ok so let me share a small project of the office redecorating. I really wanted something chevron and viola  here’s what I came up with.  I picked up this piece at a garage sale for 15 dollars!  Still can't believe it.  I get a lot of compliments on this piece.  

So I won’t make any promises about getting cards done or participating in the weekly sketch challenges.  But I will promise that I will never stop being creative!   For now its just going to have to be one project at a time whenever I can find the time and the spaceJ. 

Hello MOJO Monday!

Ok well today is actually Sunday,  but for those that don't know about this great card sketch challenge and blog, Mojo Monday is held every Monday with a new sketch for creating a card.   These weekend they give you two choices (oh boy that's one too many for me :). Below are the two choices. 

The last time I played a challenge with them and they gave two choices, I winded up doing both.  I am happy to say I was able to narrow down to one.  But there is still time to go back and do the second!   So that means there is still time for you to play along as well.  :). 

I forgot to mention that I just purchased these Heart Nesties, love them and love the little fishtails in this one. 

Paper: DP MME Love Me, Cardstock SU Kraft and Riding Hood Red

Ink: Memento Brown and Time Holtz Distressing Tea

Stamps: Pink Paislee Scallop Heart and SU  Whimsical Words

Accessories: SU Espresso Ribbon, Button

Love is in the air

I hear people say all the time how times flies. My question is why? Why does time fly?   It feels like we just finished Christmas and here we are already in the second month of 2013, with Valentine's Day just in two weeks. 

Oy vey as my good friend Mary Ann always says. :). 

Well below is my first Valentine's Day card for the season.   Finally playing back in sketch challenges, this one was done for the  My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club.  It was a great layout for me to get back in the swing of things.  Somewhat simplistic however with their layouts you can make as decorative as you like.   You still have time so go take a look, get "enspired" and craft away. 

Paper: DP Recollections Valentine's Day, SU Riding Hood Red and Kraft

Stamps: Close to my Heart Card Commentary

Ink: Memento and Tim Holtz Tea for Distressing lightly the edges. 

Accessories: MFT Rolled Roses, MFT Fishtail Flags, MFT Squiggly Scallop, Kaiser Pearls and Bling Heart

Thank for stopping by stay tuned for more Valentine's Day fun! 

Christmas Album from The Button Farm!

Well last month I was a lucky recipient of this Adorably cute kit from the Button Farm. I actually was notified back in November that they were sending me out their monthly kits but had no idea what was coming.   First let me say this.... I am was not a huge chipboard embellisher but after putting this album together I feel much different about chipboard now.   Their accessories are so cute- all of them!   From the rusted jingle bells to the mini  postcards to the chipboard shapes.   And their paper is so freaking pretty!

I had a lot of fun putting this together even though it did take me almost a full bottle of my beacons glue.  But you know me and my glue. Angela from Button Farm suggested distressing the pages with ink and I went crazy and did every thing-paper, album and embellishments.  I used the Tim Holtz-Tea.  The final layout is very vintage old Christmas.   Because of the all the details it was definitely a full weekend project but worth every minute of it.  

They offer some other cute albums on their website, so go check it out! And thanks for stopping by. 

Catching Up Part 2 and Blog Name Change.

Ok I know Christmas is over but I did promise to show you some of the stuff I did over the holidays.

Last month I had the pleasure of teaching a class at the Maitland Senior Center.   What a great group of people.   We made Christmas cards, stuffed them with a single shot of coffee or tea and then sent them out to the troops.

The folks that attended said they really enjoyed my class and didn't realize it was quite easy to scrapbook, I even had two men in my class and was asked if I could come back!

On another note you may have realized I changed my web address to just EnspirationDesigns.com.  I came to the realization that I am and have a desire to be a crafter of many trades. As I have mentioned before most of my projects are "enspirations" drawn from other crafters and recently I have been "enspired" to attempt other things like photography, home decorating and canvas painting.  I have some very talented, artsy friends and I am learning all kinds of new things from them.   Have no worries most of my posts will likely still be card making and scrap booking as these are my main passions.   But I would like to share with you my many other projects too.

Don't forget to come by later I am going to post one more Christmas project, it was also my favorite one this year!

Catching up, Happy 2013!

Hi folks! so yes believe it or not I have been crafting, just as usual not posting. Right after Halloween I started making gifts, cards etc and of course had plans to take pics and post but just ran out of time to do so. And all of my creations now are being enjoyed by my lucky recipients. (or so I hope-lol).

Aside from that our holidays turned out to be not so great. We started off feeling very festive and in the Christmas spirit but they ended on a rather sad note.

The week before Christmas Scott and I headed to Manhattan. We pretty much froze our hineys off. But it was just what we needed to be reminded of how much we love our Florida and the beaches. We keep saying we couldn't wait to get back to Florida and head to the beach with our lab Dexter. While we were there we did see the Rockettes-Christmas spectacular, the Rockefeller Christmas tree, the ice skaters in Central Park and Santa! We ate some of the best food and enjoyed cocktails at some swanky bars with great friends and family. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and my company-my husband Scott. Scott has been very busy with work and school this year and at times we literally were just two ships passing in the night. It was a great time to reconnect and remember how lucky I am to have a great guy!

We came home Christmas Eve night and after settling in our Dex had a massive seizure. This was his first ever and it was long, too long. We immediately rushed him to the emergency vet and started treatment. We pretty much knew what this meant and spent most of Christmas Day and the days after sobbing and preparing for the worst. Although at one point Dexter showed some improvement ultimately he lost his battle and we were told he likely had cancer. After two and half weeks we made the most difficult decision.

We miss him very much and have struggled day to day but we are finding better and better days.

Dexter would have been 12 on 1/31/11. I know in lab years some are saying this was to be expected but I feel we should have had more time. Especially when at his recent routine vet visit,  we were told he is in great shape and had a very strong heart.  This was no surprise as we kept him very active with us. I have been doing a bit of research with canines and cancer and what I have discovered is so disturbing.

Basically the belief is what we feed our furkids could be the in the large the reason for them developing this illness. The reasons vary from ground up chickens that have cancer to agents from the heating process known to cause cancer being in their food. The government regulations do not prevent this or monitor.

Furthermore in general canine cancer as well as human cancer is on the rise. There is also a strong belief in human cancer that what we put in our bodies is causing this terminal illness. This is scary and disappointing, considering our government has a hand in this.

Something so simple as making sure our staple items-like eggs and milk are the purest they can be could be a such a gain. But what is feed to our cows and chicken, hormones given for mass production and conditions of the how the animals are farmed are harming and contributing to the problem.

ok well let me get back to craft talking. :) I do have a few pictures from my christmas crafting so  stay tuned as I will be posting those and some new ones for Valentines Day.